GUYANA: RESPONSES TO DEMARCHE ON GOVERNANCE REFORMS

C O N F I D E N T I A L GEORGETOWN 000710

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

WHA/CAR
WHA/OAS
S/CRS
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/19/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM OAS GY UK CA
SUBJECT: GUYANA: RESPONSES TO DEMARCHE ON GOVERNANCE REFORMS

REF: A. STATE 114561

B. GEORGETOWN 667

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Michael D. Thomas
For Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: US, UK, Canada and EU chiefs of mission
delivered demarche on governance reforms to President Jagdeo
July 13, Opposition Leader Robert Corbin July 14, the upstart
Alliance For Change (AFC) July 17, and the ruling People's
Progressive Party (PPP) July 18. Jagdeo generally agreed
with the principles in the demarche but would not be drawn
into committing to a specific timeline. Corbin accepted the
message on governance reform in a distracted manner, but is
much more concerned with the mechanics of impending
elections. END SUMMARY.

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Jagdeo Receptive, But Non-Committal on Reform Timing
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2. (C) Chiefs of mission from the US, UK, Canada and EU (ABCE
Group) delivered demarche on governance reforms to President
Jagdeo July 13. Jagdeo appeared engaged as Canada High
Commissioner read demarche points, as if familiar with the
content of the message and generally in agreement. Jagdeo
responded that the ABCE Group would see "much of what you
requested in the PPP manifesto after the election date is
set". He agreed with the principles that the National
Assembly must be strengthened to become the primary forum for
political discussion and that electoral system must be fixed.
However, Jagdeo left the impression of not fully
appreciating how seriously donors take this issue of reform.


3. (C) Despite ABCE Group's prodding, Jagdeo would not be
drawn into a specific timeline for implementing the reforms.
Rather, he said the terms of Guyana's multilateral loans
dictated the pace of governance reforms and that he wants
constitutional reform process to resume before year-end.
Jagdeo blamed the breakdown in the reform process on the main
opposition People's National Congress (PNC) party, claiming
that his executive had fixed everything it could unilaterally.

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Corbin Accepts Demarche, More Concerned with Voters List
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4. (C) ABCE Group delivered demarche to opposition leader
Robert Corbin of the PNC and Working People's Alliance (WPA)
co-leader Rupert Roopnarine July 14. (Note: The PNC and WPA
have cooperated in recent months as the One Guyana Platform.)
Corbin broadly accepted the demarche's message -- calling
the reforms "easy" -- and remains focused instead on his
"lack of confidence" in the election process. He and
Roopnarine lamented in forceful yet vague and sometime
contradictory terms the purported failure of the Guyana
Election Commission (GECOM) to carry out its obligations.
They struggled to respond to UK High Commissioner's query as
to what GECOM actions in the near-term would satisfy the One
Guyana Platform. They eventually named as two conditions
"some sort of verification" of the voters list and applying
the results of the EOJ exercise (which GECOM says it has
done). (Note: The EOJ exercise refers to the cross-matching
of registered voters' fingerprints undertaken by the
Electoral Office of Jamaica that revealed 947 certain
duplicates and 4,427 possible duplicates out of a total
cohort of over half a million fingerprint scans.) But they
were far more interested in discussing the potential
consequences of holding elections by late August/early
September given their doubts about GECOM's preparedness.
Roopnarine warned the ABCE Group not to discount the
"spontaneous rage of disenfranchised voters."

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AFC Believes in Reforms, Preoccupied with Campaign
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5. (C) ABCE Group delivered demarche to AFC co-leaders
Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan July 17. As expected,
they concur with the message. Reforming governance in Guyana
is part of their mantra. They want to sever the obligation
for MPs to vote with their party by rote rather than with
their conscience. But rather than dwell on the reforms
issue, the AFC leaders were eager to discuss the challenges
they face in election preparations. For example, the
state-run radio monopoly has stopped airing paid AFC
political advertisements, on the grounds that the campaign
period has not officially begun.

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PPP Also Supportive of Demarche Message
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6. (C) ABCE Group delivered demarche to PPP General Secretary
Donald Ramotar July 18. He, too, agreed with the points on
governance reform.

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Comment
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7. (C) Guyana's political leaders do not view the content of
the governance reform demarche as controversial. They
broadly agree that revitalization of the reform process is
essential to Guyana's future. However, in trying to pin the
blame for past failure on each other the political parties
continue to put the reform process at risk. Post, together
with UK, Canada, and EU representatives will use every
possible opportunity to remind Jagdeo and political party
leaders to commit to a specific timetable for implementing
specific reforms. The ABCE Group in Georgetown is of one

mind that continued flow of governance assistance funding to
Guyana should be conditioned on resumption of a meaningful
reform process, with timelines and benchmarks, immediately
after elections. Otherwise Guyana will continue to find
itself in the same predicament every election cycle. END
COMMENT.
THOMAS