PPP/Civic, PNC to state position on retention of CARICOM facilitator
The parties to the Herdmanston Accord are to be asked by CARICOM Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington, about their positions on the retention of the CARICOM Facilitator, Maurice King QC, in the dialogue process. A statement issued from Castries, St Lucia, by CARICOM said that St Lucia's Prime Minister, Dr Kenny Anthony, saw "these views as well as those of civil society, as being critical in enabling the Bureau of Heads of Government to make recommendations, at its next meeting, as regards CARICOM's future position on the matter." Prime Minister Anthony has responsibility for monitoring political developments in Guyana and the implementation of the Herdmanston Accord and the St Lucia Statement, measures to which the PPP/Civic and the PNC are signatories. Carrington's involvement was requested when he met Dr Anthony in Castries for discussions on the status of implementation of the Herdmanston Accord and the St Lucia Statement. The statement said Dr Anthony "expressed great satisfaction at the agreement emerging between the two parties for the establishment of an Ethnic Relations Commission as a mechanism to respond to the political and other challenges in Guyana arising from its ethnic diversity." It said that Dr Anthony was also pleased with the continuing progress in the Constitution Reform Process. "Prime Minister Anthony saw these developments as very positive steps towards the process of political normalisation in Guyana." It said that he had "reiterated the appeal by Heads of Government for an early meeting between President Jagdeo and [PNC leader Desmond] Hoyte as a further step in this direction." To date President Jagdeo and Hoyte have been unable to reach agreement about the capacities in which they will meet, given the President's declaration that he was neither the leader of the PPP or its representative for the purposes of the Herdmanston Accord. At a press briefing by King on Friday at the CARICOM Secretariat, both the PPP and PNC representatives, Donald Ramotar and Lance Carberry respectively, expressed a willingness to meet with or without a facilitator. They both praised the skills which King had taken to the process.
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