More than 48 hours after officials of the opposition parties, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) met for talks, and pledged to release a joint statement on the way forward, that statement is still to be released.

News Source understands that a proposal was made for the creation of a six-member team to develop guidelines to govern their engagement, with three members from each side. 

It is believed that once the guidelines are established, the parties would be able to meet and discuss issues of mutual interest, and arrive at a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

It is believed that the process can establish a foundation for working together on matters of national importance.

News Source also understands that the parties have exchanged several versions of the statements, but have not reached an agreement on the final product.

Contacted today by News Source, WIN General Secretary, MP Odessa Primus said it is the intention of the parties to issue joint statement; however, it is still a work in progress.

“Currently, it still stands as the statement would be issued. The day of the meeting, we were unable to come to an agreement in terms of what should be made public and what shouldn’t, and the following day we were out of town, so we were unable to engage with them but we plan to take up those engagements again today and try to finalize same,” MP Primus explained.

MP Primus is hopeful that the statement could be finalized by the end of today.  

Meanwhile, PNCR General Secretary and APNU Representative Sherwin Benjamin told News Source that the coalition is awaiting word from WIN on the latest version of the proposed statement.

“We basically participated in a couple rounds of back and forth with the joint statement. So, I am waiting on WIN. I did send a copy with some edits, third set of edits to WIN yesterday but they were out of Georgetown. So, I am awaiting their final position,” Benjamin explained.

WIN invited APNU to the meeting on Monday to discuss the nominees for the Local Government Commission, in addition to the status of the three opposition-nominated Elections Commissioners, the scrutineers involved in the registration process at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), and the election of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Regional Democratic Council of Region 10.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides indicated that the intended issues were not discussed during the meeting.

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