Jagdeo refuses to meet to address national issues
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo

JAGDEO has turned down an offer to meet with the President next week, citing two letters which were sent to the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) by President David Granger as the major reason for avoiding the meeting.

On Thursday, at a press briefing at the Office of the Opposition Leader on Church Street, Georgetown, Jagdeo repeatedly claimed that the letters were the same and that one was fraudulently altered.
He later acknowledged that the letters were two different correspondences and this was supported later in the day by GECOM commissioners, including those representing the Peoples’ Progressive Party on the commission.

Minister of State Joseph Harmon

Minister of State Joseph Harmon, in a statement released late on Thursday evening, refuted Jagdeo’s claims.
Harmon noted that Jagdeo, as Leader of the Opposition, has not chosen to respond to the President’s invitation to meet with him as protocol dictates.

“A letter of invitation was sent to the Leader of the Opposition for a meeting with the President on March 6 at 11:00hrs. We made that public after the letter was sent to the Leader of the Opposition. One would expect that under normal decency and by virtue of democratic behaviour, the Leader of the Opposition would respond to the President indicating whether he would attend that meeting or not, but not to hear in the media that he has said that he is not attending,” he said.

Minister Harmon believes that there is enough time before the March 6 meeting for the Opposition Leader to reconsider his decision to accept the President’s invitation.
“We have always said that the President is prepared to engage with the Leader of the Opposition on any matter of national interest. We consider this to be one such matter and, therefore, that is why the President invited him. So it is our hope that after mature consideration, the Leader of the Opposition will change that stance which he has taken today and attend the meeting,” Minister Harmon added.

As he elaborated on the letters and set the tone of his press conference on the fraud claims, Jagdeo told reporters on Thursday that he will not be meeting with the Head of State unless a date for elections is on the agenda.

He was repeatedly reasoned by members of the press that the two correspondences were different given the tone. “Yea, yea, ok,” he said when journalists in the room, whom he provided with copies of the letters, indicated that there were two different letters. “So if there is two separate letters, which one is the one we will use,” he questioned.

Jagdeo told reporters that he planned to write the President on conditions for the meeting prior to his “discovery” of the letters being different.

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