Tight security at Parliament for Friday’s no-confidence debate; AFC hears of rumoured PPP “diabolical plots”

Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 December 2018, 20:02 by Denis Chabrol

Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan has reportedly assured his Alliance For Change ( AFC) political party of water-tight security on Friday when the no-confidence vote is expected to be debated.

“We have been assured that the security forces are fully mobilised and prepared to ensure that there is no breach of the peace,” the AFC said in a statement.

The AFC’s statement came a few hours after Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Chief Whip, Gail Texeira released a letter she wrote Police Commissioner, Leslie James urging him to avoid “mayhem and violence” on Friday.

Saying that it is as concerned as the PPP about “peace and order”, the AFC said it has also heard of “rumours of diabolical plots by the PPP, and of moves to disrupt the House when the vote on the Motion fails.”

The AFC said it has warned its parliamentarians to be vigilant even before and during the debate.

That party says it has asked “our supporters to be on the look out for agent provocateurs who we understand will try to infiltrate their numbers and cause confusion.”

Suggesting that the government, with its 33 seats, would defeat the Bharrat Jagdeo-sponsored motion, the AFC urged the PPP to accept the outcome. “For our democracy to prevail we must respect each other’s views and we beseech the PPP to accept the vote,” the AFC said.

“The AFC urges the PPP leaders to respect the views of all Guyana and to call on their supporters to respect the views of the majority when the motion is voted down as we are certain it will be,” the AFC added.

According to the AFC, the PPP engaged in a distatesteful act of tabling the motion at a time when President David Granger announced that he was seeking medical attention and needed the nation’s support. “The PPP has to understand that thousands see this as a cowardly attack on the President and are rightly outraged,” the party added.

Noting that the 2019 National Budget was passed without any dissent from the PPP, the AFC labelled the motion “at best superfluous, and vexatious and at worse, a cowardly manoeuvre against the President, and should be withdrawn.”

Earlier Wednesday, the PPP called on the Police Commissioner to be wary of plans to block its parliamentarians from entering Parliament Building on Friday to debate the motion, or leave after the vote. The PPP also said the plan appeared to include attacks on ordinary Guyanese in the precincts of Parliament.

The PPP did not name any political Party.

The Guyana government has not reacted to the PPP’s now publicised contents of the letter to the top cop.