Last Updated on Thursday, 26 June 2014, 2:54 by GxMedia
APNU Vice Chairman, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine said he floated the idea of a no-confidence motion at a recent public meeting at Ann’s Grove, East Coast Demerara.
Fresh election ahead of 2016 was recently put on the front-burner by AFC Vice Chairman, Moses Nagamootoo who cited government’s abuse of accountability by spending GUY$4.5 billion of the GUY$37.4 billion although it has not been approved by the opposition.
Roopnaraine said APNU has not yet met with the AFC but that party’s idea would be discussed internally. “We haven’t yet had a discussion with the AFC. I consider it something that is worth discussing but we haven’t yet met with the AFC, we haven’t yet put it to our own shadow cabinet,” he said.
He said based on APNU’s internal discussions, the AFC would be invited to hold talks about its idea of a no-confidence vote.
The constitution states that the President and the Cabinet must resign if the government is defeated by a majority vote of the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence. The constitution further states that the government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months or such longer period as the National Assembly by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the election.
President Donald Ramotar on Wednesday signalled that he was ready for early general election, during an address to the Private Sector Commission’s (PSC) Annual General Meeting. “We do not take threats. If the opposition wants to pass a no-confidence bill, let them pass it and we will be ready to deal with the consequences of that,” he said.
