He added that it gives the main opposition party a greater voice and it also allows the Opposition to have a say in matters relating to appointments on the various Constitutional Commissions and Committees.

The Presidents pointed out that there was minimal input from CARICOM countries and the international community in the working out of Guyana’s Constitution.

“Our Constitutional reform started even before the 1997 elections. It was in the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) manifesto of 1992. We had committed ourselves to Constitutional reform. We started that process and then the elections came and it was put on hold and after the problems we have had, we set up a Constitutional Reform Commission (CRC) to continue the process,” said the Head of State.

It was noted that the CRC had all the political parties in Parliament involved in the process along with representatives of youths, women, churches, mosques, temples and the various religious groups in Guyana.

“They came together and they agreed on these measures and what we are doing now is putting numbers to the measures. We are also implementing what was agreed to a few years ago. In 2001 many of these Bills were assented to,” said President Jagdeo.

He explained that the agreements in the communiqué are not new because they were agreed to about two years ago, but they were not implemented. The President noted that the communiqué is very comprehensive in its scope because it deals with all the issues. He pointed out that specific timeframes have been set and there are people already working on implementing the agreements that were reached.

The President said, “What this does is not just to create greater political stability which is vital for economic development, but it also allows for the generation of jobs and for quicker implementation of programmes in the education, health, housing and water sectors.”

He pointed out that greater stability will be in the society and it would influence people directly in their homes. “It also gives greater comfort to the ordinary man regardless of his ethnic origin. He or she will be treated equally as a Guyanese, regardless of race, religion or any other factor,” President Jagdeo said.