Discussions on increased opposition collaboration possible at PPP Congress – Rohee

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:01 by GxMedia

There is a possibility that greater collaboration with the opposition parties could be one of the issues discussed at the PPP’s Congress scheduled for this weekend.

This is according to Congress Chairman Clement Rohee at a party news conference on Monday.

“In the report of the Central Committee there may be some expressions of views on that matter. Each member will have a copy of the Central Committee report and after the General Secretary finish reading the report, the next morning they will go to the workshops to go into greater detail now,” Rohee said.

The ruling PPP, which formed a minority government after the 2011 general elections, has been battling with the opposition to push through its agenda with some of its larger projects running into turbulence in the National Assembly. The AFC and the APNU together control 33 seats in the 65-member House.

Shared governance and inclusive governance have been buzzwords for years, gaining prominence during the PPP’s majority in the House but the government has nixed any possibility of the former while maintaining it is practising the latter.

“Maybe there’ll be a resolution coming on those issues, we don’t know as yet,” Rohee told reporters Monday. He added that the leadership has not seen the resolutions put forward as yet since they were still being documented.

Rohee said the workshops scheduled for Saturday will discuss the party, the existing political situation, and parliament and elections at which individual delegates and observers could raise the matter. Workshops are also to be held on the international situation and youth and the party.

Deliberations on the party’s political direction leading up to 2016 will be a key feature of the Congress he had said previously.

General and regional elections are constitutionally due by 2016, the same year as the next Congress, unless the minority PPP/C government is forced to call a snap election. The party Congress is held triennially but was postponed in 2011 as a result of the polls that year.

The 30th Congress is to be held from August 2 – 4 at Port Mourant, East Berbice and will be the first without the presence of the late Jagans, the party’s founding couple.