Charrandas enters Parliament in full confidence, sees no Coalition MP in seat

VASTLY different from the tension and darkness on the night of December 20, 2018, former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Parliamentarian, Charrandas Persaud, returned to the Parliament under the brightness of the sun and calmness of the day, this time as a ‘guest’ to observe the 14th sitting of the 12th Parliament on Wednesday.

Clad in a khaki outfit and equipped with his briefcase, Persaud, heralded as a hero by some and despised as a villain by others, entered the doors of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) which is being utilised for sittings of the National Assembly because of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
His presence immediately “ruffled the feathers” of his former colleague, AFC Parliamentarian, Sherod Duncan, who, clearly overwhelmed by emotions, ‘greeted’ Persaud with verbal acrimony, at the entrance of the facility.

Duncan’s annoyance was evidently induced by his memory of what Persaud had called a “conscience vote” in favour of a no-confidence motion against his Government which was tabled by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in the National Assembly on December 21, 2018.
Minutes after voting “yes” to unseat the David Granger administration, Persaud, on the corridors of the Public Buildings, had told reporters that he was grossly disappointed in the AFC, the party to which he belonged.

“We are sitting in Parliament like ‘yes-men’ to APNU, and we are AFC,” he had said. “And we have not blended with APNU. The other parties have; we have not. The Government is APNU+AFC; we have not blended. So why are we doing everything they want to do, like passing Prime Minister Hamilton Green’s Pension Bill?” Persaud had told reporters.

Fearful for his life, Persaud immediately fled Guyana after casting his vote and was living in Canada until October, when he returned to Guyana.
His stay in North America, according to reports, was protracted because of a slew of legal challenges which followed the passage of the No-Confidence Motion and a subsequent five-month electoral impasse, which concluded only on August 2, 2020, with the PPP/C being elected to office.
A vociferous Duncan was critical of Persaud’s decision to vote against his Government, which now occupies the opposition side of the House, which, coincidentally, was physically empty on the day of the former parliamentarian’s return.

The vacant opposition seats did not go unnoticed, as the Government’s Chief Whip, Minister of Governance and Parliamentary Affairs, Gail Teixeira, rose on a point of order to register her disappointment in the opposition parliamentarians being absent from the chambers, but participating virtually from another section of the ACCC.
The Speaker of the House, Manzoor Nadir, concurred that this should not be the case and advised the opposition parliamentarians to occupy the seats in the chambers.