Jagdeo says ‘power sharing’ already happening

Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo said there is already power sharing in Guyana’s legislature and emphasised that any further efforts in this regard require a great deal of trust among all political players.

“So the last time we had the constitutional reform, we said, ‘How could we explore a system of shared governance at the parliamentary level?’

“And we put in place, in the Constitution, several features that shared power at the level of the legislature, which vastly differentiates us from the Westminster model practised around the world,” Jagdeo explained at his weekly press conference on Thursday.

The creation of several commissions, including the rights commission and the procurement commission, is among the efforts made to share governance, Jagdeo said. He noted this was done because the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), the party he is General Secretary of, recognised a need to share power in the legislature.

He also said the requirement for the government and the opposition to agree on the substantive appointments of the top two judicial spots (the post of Chancellor of the Judiciary and Chief Justice) is another way shared governance is already manifesting.

But he believes that intermittent calls for shared governance are for power sharing at the executive level. Such a venture, he believes, requires much trust to prevent any deadlocks in decision-making.

“Executive power sharing will not work in the absence of trust.

“… We are not going to explore an arrangement where we can’t deliver on the promises made to the people of the country… We can’t go and say APNU blocked us from it,” Jagdeo said.

For context, the three branches of government are the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. At the executive level, Jagdeo believes that unless political parties can all agree to plans, there may be deadlocks in decision-making, preventing the fulfillment of promises made to citizens.