Nandlall slams APNU, WIN for ‘incompetence’ & ‘lack of direction’

Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall has ridiculed the opposition parties, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), over their failure to reach agreement on three matters related to

their work. Nandlall questioned how the two parties could function effectively in Government if they are unable to resolve what he described as relatively simple issues, noting that governing requires multiple decisions to be made on a daily basis. On August 24, the two parties met for formal talks but the discussions ended with no agreements. WIN, the main parliamentary opposition party, had invited APNU to the meeting to discuss nominees for the Local Government Commission (LGC), the status of the three opposition-nominated Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Commissioners, the scrutineers involved in the registration process at GECOM and the election of the Chairman and Vice Chairman (VC) of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Ten (Upper Demerara-Berbice).

Both the leaders of WIN and APNU provided little details concerning the discussions, telling reporters following the more than one-hour long meeting that a joint statement will be issued by the end of the day. The statement however, was issued days later and contained little to no information on the discussions. Commenting on these developments during his programme “Issues in the News” on Tuesday, Nandlall remarked, “the day passed and five other days passed and on the sixth day, a statement was issued and…it was completely vacuous, it says nothing, it achieved nothing, it tells you nothing”. “So, I don’t know what, if they just stood and looked at each other for two hours in that room and said nothing and when the press was attempting to courteously ask them questions, they were very aggressive in avoiding answering very reasonable and pertinent questions that the press is expected to ask…three issues they were to address and they still are to address and not one have they addressed,” he contended. According to the AG, these politicians are seeking to be elected to Government, but their inability to reach agreement on relatively simple matters raises questions about their capacity to govern effectively.