Guyana Chronicle
April 24, 2001

THE much anticipated meeting between President Bharrat Jagdeo and leader of the main Opposition People's National Congress Reform (PNC/R), Mr Desmond Hoyte, is scheduled for this afternoon at the Office of the President in Georgetown.

Arrangements for the meeting were worked out by Parliamentary Affairs Minister and representative for President Jagdeo, Mr Reepu Daman Persaud and PNC/R General Secretary and Hoyte's representative, Mr Oscar Clarke.

Today's meeting is at the initiative of President Jagdeo who earlier this month formally invited Mr Hoyte for one-on-one talks on matters of concern.

The meeting is in keeping with the President's repeated calls for dialogue with leaders of political parties following the March 19 elections which his People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) won.

At his inauguration, Mr Jagdeo had said, "It is critical that we engage one another in dialogue. We should always reach out and talk to each other."

"In this way we would be really fulfilling the mandate of all Guyanese as we share our differing views in the search for national consensus on the common objective of making this country a better place for all", the President noted.

"Together, we can work on issues and programmes that really matter to our people.

"There is so much we can achieve through genuine partnership", he said.

Clarke yesterday told the Chronicle Mr Hoyte was anxiously awaiting the meeting.

He, however, expressed concern that President Jagdeo should have left the country last week when he should have more importantly been meeting Hoyte on matters of concern to the nation.

President Jagdeo, who was in Quebec, Canada over the weekend attending the third Summit of the Americas, was due back yesterday.

Before he left Guyana on Thursday for the summit, the President told the Guyana Information Services (GIS) the current atmosphere was not conducive for serious and productive dialogue which should be free from fear, intimidation and pressures.

He hoped that the talks will proceed expeditiously to focus on serious issues in order to attain quick results.

This, however, he maintained, can only be done if the situation in the country returns to normalcy.

PNC/R anti-government street protests, which have led to violence in Georgetown and parts of the East Coast Demerara, continued in the city yesterday, although on a much smaller scale than last week.

President Jagdeo had repeatedly said he was willing to meet the PNC/R leader on issues of concern.

Clarke yesterday said that Hoyte in a television address March 30, had outlined a number of issues which "are the points that I think Mr Hoyte will want to settle on when the actual discussions start."

Hoyte told a rally of his party in Georgetown earlier this month that the logic of the circumstances dictated that he should meet the President but that this would have to be done with the full support of the PNC/R and its supporters.