Sir Paul Reeves, the Special Envoy of the Commonwealth Secretary General is urging President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNCR Leader, Robert Corbin to clear their diaries so that they can meet more often.

He has also urged the government and other stakeholders to start early in preparing for the 2006 elections.

Reeves leaves Guyana today having spent a week listening and making suggestions to the various stakeholders in the political dialogue between the President and the Leader of the Opposition.

Jagdeo and Corbin last met on September 15 and the joint statement issued after the meeting said that they would meet again after two weeks. As yet no date has been set for that meeting, at which among other things they are to discuss legislation to do with crossing the National Assembly floor as well as the issues of shared governance.

Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday in a telephone interview, Sir Paul said he had urged representatives of both the government and opposition to ensure the implementation of the parliamentary reforms so as to make certain that parliament was once again the proper forum for these issues.

He said that he had also stressed the need for attention to be urgently given to the electoral system to be used at the 2006 elections to allow the Elections Commission to become acquainted with it and to begin its preparations for those elections.

Sir Paul also told Stabroek News that a concern raised by the various organisations was the timely implementation of the decisions taken in the discussions between the President and the Leader of the Opposition. He said that it was clear that implementation of the decisions taken were mainly the responsibility of the government.

Sir Paul said that he had heard from the various groups of the progress being made in the talks and of the need for a monitoring mechanism to look at how the decisions are being implemented.

Besides President Jagdeo and Corbin, Sir Paul met with the representatives of the donor community, the Guyana Elections Commission and various civil society organisations.

He also met a number of individuals including Dr Roger Luncheon, Lance Carberry, Dr Mark Kirton, Haslyn Parris, Hugh Cholmondeley, and Raphael Trotman. (Patrick Denny)