Guyana’s Parliament To Debate No Confidence Vote On December 21

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, December 15, 2018 (CMC) – The Guyana government says the vote of no-confidence, filed against it, by Opposition leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, will be heard on December 21.

Government Chief Whip and Social Protection Minister, Amna Ali, has described the motion, filed by the general secretary of the main opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP), as hypocritical.

Jagdeo, a former president, said whether the PPP wins or loses the no-confidence motion, he believes the country will benefit from the debate surrounding it, “because we believe we will get a chance, once again, to point out what the electorate said to them when they rejected them at these polls, that their policies are all wrong, and damaging our prospects for the future and the well-being of all of our people, across Guyana”.

Government ministers have, in the past few days, said that the motion is a diversion.

“The Leader of the Opposition is laying this motion, almost as a diversion. We are in the process of debating the budget of 2019 (and) if an opposition is able to oppose the passage of a budget …it has the same impact, a major financial document, it has the same impact of a notion of no-confidence,” Foreign Affairs Minister, Carl Greenidge, said recently.

The coalition government holds a slender, one-seat majority in the 65-member National Assembly.