GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Charrandass Persaud, whose vote toppled the then ruling A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) administration in 2018, has been accredited as Guyana’s new High Commissioner to India.
A Guyana government statement said that Persaud, who had supported the then opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/Civic) motion of no confidence in the David Granger government, presented his credentials to India’s President Ram Nath Kovind.
The statement said that the ceremony was held at India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday.
Persaud, a then government back bencher, voted with the opposition PPP legislators to win the no-confidence motion in the 65-seat National Assembly after several hours of debate.
The APNU had won the 2015 general election by a slender one-seat majority and despite repeated urges by fellow parliamentarians to change his vote, Persaud declined.
Persaud fled the country for Canada soon after his vote and returned last October, a few months after the PPP/C was declared the winner in a controversial election, the results of which are being challenged by the APNU-AFC in the courts.
The government statement quoted President Kovind as saying that India enjoys warm and friendly relations with the country as their ties are deeply rooted in a common vision of peace and prosperity. The President also extended his gratitude to the countries for supporting India’s candidature for the non-permanent seat of UN Security Council for the term 2021-22, a press release said.
“Additionally, the President said India has been at the forefront of global efforts to forge a decisive and coordinated response to COVID-19. He said under the Government’s Vaccine Maitri Initiative, highly affordable vaccines made in India and have already been distributed to several countries worldwide.
“To this end, the Ambassadors and High Commissioners expressed gratitude to India for supplying their countries with quantities of the vaccine. To date, Guyana has received from India a donation of 80,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine COVISHIELD, which were made in India,” the government statement added.
India was among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Guyana after it gained independence on May 26, 1966.
