As the deadline for elections draws nearer, the Opposition is engaging former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and several international organizations to inform them of the political situation here and advocate for sanctions against the Government.
At a press conference at his Church Street, Georgetown office on Thursday, Jagdeo disclosed that he received a call last week from Mr Carter, who is head of the Carter Centre.
The Cater Centre has been influential in the conduct of free and fair elections in Guyana.
Jagdeo said he thought it is necessary to let the Guyanese know that he spoke with Mr. Carter but he did not disclose details of the conversation, noting that the former US President is also planning to contact President David Granger.
“I prefer to keep a little quiet on the content at this point in time until I hear back from him as to whether he has spoken to President David Granger,” Jagdeo said.
Mr. Carter had sought to engage the two political leaders in mid-2018 to jump-start talks between the Government and the Opposition Leader, who had refused to meet because the Government team was led by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo.
Jagdeo has also written to several international organisations requesting that they cease to recognize the Government after March 21, which is the deadline for the holding of Elections in Guyana following the passage of the December 21 No Confidence Motion against the Coalition Government,
Jagdeo told the media that detailed briefings were given to the Commonwealth, Organisation of American States (OAS) and CARICOM.
“We are requesting that these agencies not recognise the Government of Guyana after March 21st. There are other issues we raised in the letter, we gave them a detailed briefing as to how the Government has deliberately been slowing down the process of complying with the constitution [of Guyana] and how they’ve acted in bad faith throughout, even at the engagements we’ve had,” Jagdeo noted.
Jagdeo and PPP Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali along with former Finance Minister Juan Edghill met with President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno where they informed the IDB of alleged corruption in contracts funded by the bank.
“I told him that there are two contracts that we believe that there is massive corruption in, that are funded by the Inter-American Development Bank,” the Opposition Leader told the media.
Jagdeo identified the metering project under the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) company where the contract was not awarded to the lowest bidder as one of the alleged corrupt projects along with the award of a contract in January after the No-Confidence motion was passed against the Government.
“$1B in both cases, more than what we really should have paid,” he said.
Jagdeo committed to investigating alleged corrupt activities occurring during the APNU+AFC’s tenure if his party is elected to office.
He also noted that the PPP will be writing to Norway to stop disbursements under the Guyana Redd+ Investment Fund. The fund is for the financing of activities identified under the Government of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) formulated under Jagdeo’s presidency.
The Head of State on Wednesday wrote a letter to the Guyana Elections Commission requesting a work programme “in the shortest possible time,” to guide him in proclaiming a date for elections.
However, the Opposition Leader believes the President’s move is a ploy to further delay the elections.
The President requested GECOM’s plans and programmes and financial needs to move the process forward.
