House Speaker sets date for first sitting since July

Oct 28, 2014 News

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Admitting that there is an existing “untenable and unhealthy” situation which is that the National Assembly has not met since July 10, House Speaker, Raphael Trotman, has made moves to secure a sitting next week.

Trotman wrote the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, yesterday requesting that he should make necessary arrangements to facilitate a sitting next Thursday, November 6.
Trotman acknowledged that the Parliamentary Management Committee had decided unanimously to allow Government and Opposition Chief Whips to continue in their efforts to agree on a date for the next sitting of the National Assembly.
He said however that recent communication with the Whips, and pronouncements in the media attributed to both Gail Teixeira and Amna Ally, clearly lend to the view that the positions are intractable and that the likelihood of a date been agreed upon soon, is unlikely.
The Speaker said that there is therefore gridlock, “and we are faced with the untenable and unhealthy situation of the National Assembly not meeting since July 10, 2014. I am sure that you will agree with me that this cannot be allowed to continue any longer as there is no state of national emergency, or otherwise, that prevents the Assembly from not meeting. In fact, on the contrary, I make bold to say that there are myriad issues of national importance that require our immediate attention.”
Trotman told Isaacs that notwithstanding the process in which the Whips were involved, he chose to engage Isaacs and the former Speakers of the National Assembly with a view to enquiring how best things could be resolved.
He acknowledged receipt of opinions from Isaacs, and Messrs. Sase Narine, O.R., S.C., and Ralph Ramkarran, S.C.
But Trotman told Isaacs that “With regard to your opinion on the applicability of Standing Order 8 (2), I am in fact in complete agreement with it. With that said, this cannot mean that the National Assembly cannot be convened unless by agreement or indication from the Government; especially where such agreement appears elusive to even impossible.”
Standing Order 8 (2) says “If during an adjournment of the Assembly, it is represented to the Speaker by the Government, or the Speaker is of the opinion, that the public interest requires that the Assembly should meet on a day earlier than that to which it stands adjourned, the Speaker may give notice accordingly and the Assembly shall meet at the time stated in such notice. The Clerk shall as soon as possible inform each Member in writing, or telegram or by appropriate electronic means of any such earlier meeting.”
The Speaker said that with consideration of this he found favour with the opinion rendered by the former Speakers of the National Assembly, which in effect states that the National Assembly shall meet “day by day”; unless otherwise decided by the National Assembly, and that as the Assembly automatically went into recess on August 10, 2014, so too did it automatically come out of recess on October 10, 2014. Therefore, the House should have been convened forthwith on the first working day thereafter.
He noted as well that his belief that when the House adjourned to a “date to be fixed” it was done in error as a date should have been fixed. The Speaker took “full responsibility” for that even as he made known his opinion that an open-ended adjournment is tantamount to a violation of the constitutional mandate for the National Assembly to meet day by day.
“I am also of the opinion that the adjournment to “a date to be fixed” was superseded by the event of the House entering into the annual recess on August 10, 2014. The next day on which the House should have met should have been Monday October 13, 2014 as October 12, 2014, was a Sunday. No direction from the Government or the Speaker is required to re-convene the sittings in this regard. Indeed, to support this view, Committee meetings have resumed without an instruction or direction having to be given. Further, when His Excellency issued the proclamation for the 10th Parliament to be summoned and to commence sittings, it was your office that convened the sittings then and every time thereafter,” noted the Speaker.
Trotman calculated that the date he set gives provision for the normal notice period for Members of Parliament to be notified. In terms of the Order Paper for the sitting, Trotman advised that the Agenda as of July 10, 2014 is the Agenda that should be used at the next sitting together with any additional matters that have arisen during the recess subject to the requisite period of notice being observed.  (Abena Rockcliffe)

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