Latest update March 21st, 2025 7:03 AM
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Debate on 2015 Budget begins today Opposition PPP/C to enter Parliament for first time
Weeks of uncertainty over when the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) would enter parliament and take their seats on the opposition benches should be laid to rest today when its members are expected to join in the debate of the 2015 national budget.
The PPP/C MPs will be sworn in for the first time today and former Head of State Bharrat Jagdeo who has been touted as the opposition leader will lead them in the 11th Parliament.
Today’s session will be the seventh sitting of the National Assembly, following the May 11 victory at the polls by the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) coalition.
Items on the agenda are the budgetary allocations and members from the Government’s side are expected to present their cases, while the opposition Members of Parliament will rebut or enquire into the monies to be spent.
Taking into consideration the intense battles that were previously fought between the PPP/C and the APNU and AFC in the National Assembly during the life of the tenth parliament, leading up to its prorogation in November of 2014, one can conclude that the sessions of the 11 parliament will be electric.
Parliament building
Incoming Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo
Already, the PPP/C has had nothing but harsh words for the $221B budget, with Jagdeo describing it as “lengthy and underwhelming”. The former President has also been quoted in sections of the media as saying that the budget should be renamed “A fresh start to deteriorating standards of living in a destroyed economy.”
However, the PPP/C MPs serve another purpose. They are expected to sit on several Standing Committees, including the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). This Committee examines Government expenditure, as well as accounts and is chaired by a member of the opposition.
Other Committees are the Parliamentary Management Committee (PMC), the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform, the Committee on Appointments and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Oversight of the Security Sector. Membership of these Committees is interspersed with Government and Opposition MPs but is generally limited to the National Assembly.
The only exception is the Constitutional Reform Committee, which can enlist individuals with the appropriate expertise and experience outside of the Assembly.
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