Three years after the 2011 National Elections which saw the People’s Progressive Party Civic returning to government but in a minority role, the Leader of the Opposition believes that the combined opposition parties which hold the majority in the National Assembly have been doing a good job at making the administration more accountable.
At times, the opposition parties have come under criticism from political activists for not doing enough inside the National Assembly where they hold the majority. However, Opposition Leader David Granger believes the opposition parties have made some headway when it comes to the government being made to be more answerable to the people.
“Over the last three years, the Opposition has been able to collaborate and that collaboration has been able to bore fruit in preventing abuses by the executive branch”, Granger said.
He reminded that since the 2011 elections and the Opposition taking control of the National Assembly, it has faced the non assent to Bills by the President which were passed by the Assembly, the non implementation of resolutions that were passed and the current suspension of the Parliament.
According to Mr. Granger, “by working together we have been able to ensure that there is greater scrutiny of governmental performance particularly in the financial sector but also in other areas.”
He noted that through the Opposition’s work, there has been enhanced quality of governance but it continues to be a “work in progress”.
Granger said “much more still has to be done. We have struggled to ensure the independence of the judiciary by removing its budgetary control from the government which has not been successful and similarly, the parliament office, which has been treated like a department of the Office of the President. We feel that until these agencies have been granted financial independence, they will not be able to perform as autonomous agencies.”
The work in the National Assembly has been put on hold following President Ramotar’s decision to prorogue the parliament in an effort to block a no confidence motion against his administration.
With early elections possibly on the horizon, the Opposition parties are hoping to perform much better at the polls and take the reins of government. Over the past few years, the APNU and AFC have been working together, and while the APNU has been pushing for a pre-election coalition, many in the AFC which has 7 seats in parliament while the APNU has 26, believe that the party should still go it alone to the polls.
30th November, 2014
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