THE TRIPARTITE COMMITTEE

A Tripartite Committee, comprising the three political parties represented in the National Assembly, was appointed last year during the Budget controversy and is now revived. There was no agreement in 2012 on anything in relation to the 2012 Budget except for the aborted deal relating to pensions and Linden electricity rates. This unraveled when the […]

BUDGET BLUES

Formal exchanges of letters between the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, and the Shadow Minister of Finance, Mr. Carl Greenidge, seeking to fix a date for a meeting to discuss the proposed Budget, and the inevitable name calling when the exercise proved unsuccessful, ought to have alerted everyone that no serious discourse will take […]

ELECTORAL REFORM.

Both the PPP and the PNCR supported the proposals for electoral reform which were recommended by the Constitution Reform Commission (“CRC”) in 2000. The CRC had recommended the retention of the proportional representation system but urged that the “electoral system should include an element of geographical representation.” While the CRC did not make any recommendations […]

AUTONOMY OF THE PARLIAMENT

A Motion and a Bill, tabled by Khemraj Ramjattan of the AFC and Volda Lawrence of APNU respectively, relating to the autonomy of the Parliament Office, are before the National Assembly. The Motion resolves that a Special Select Committee be appointed to examine two sets of recommendations, one by Sir Michael Davies, a Commonwealth Senior […]

CREATE A NEW VISION FOR GUYANA – WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT OUR CHAINS

The rejection by the National Assembly of the re-tabled Supplementary Estimates, rejected previously, elicited headlines, accusations and counter accusations recently. According to statements in the press the Government re-tabled the Estimates because the Opposition had indicated that it was prepared to reconsider them. To its surprise the opposition voted against the Estimates without asking a […]