PNC/R explaining dialogue process to supporters at meetings



Stabroek News
April 26, 2001

The PNC REFORM (PNC/R) will hold three meetings tonight to explain to its members and supporters the dialogue process in which its leader, Desmond Hoyte, is engaged with President Bharrat Jagdeo.

The meetings are part of the strategy of the PNC/R to keep its members mobilised and informed about the progress of the talks between Hoyte and President Jagdeo.

A PNC/R official told Stabroek News yesterday that the dialogue between the party's leader and President Jagdeo was just the beginning of the process. They would also have to ensure that the decisions taken in the talks were implemented faithfully and in a timely manner. This could only be done, the official said, if the PPP/Civic was aware that the PNC/R was mobilised and alert.

The meetings, billed for 6:30 pm today, are being held at the Ruimveldt Well Site on Mandela Avenue, Kitty Market Square and at Agricola.

Last night, meetings were scheduled to be held at D'Urban Street and Louisa Row and at Rosemary Lane and Hope Street, Tiger Bay. Joe Hamilton and Clarissa Riehl were to have spoken at the meeting at Louisa Row and D'Urban Street and Stanley Ming and Andy Goveia at the Tiger Bay meeting.

President Jagdeo and Hoyte had their first meeting on Tuesday at the Office of the President, which lasted for about two hours. The joint statement issued after the meeting said that they had agreed that the appointment of Dr Roger Luncheon as Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) would be reviewed in the light of their agreement that the public service should be politically neutral, and in the context of their recognition that the appointment of the HPS lay within the discretion of the President. They also agreed that recognition of the Jagdeo administration would be without prejudice to an election petition.

The two leaders met again yesterday to work out the mechanism for the way forward.

The one-on-one meeting with Hoyte was an initiative of President Jagdeo to which Hoyte responded after he told his supporters that logic dictated that they should meet.