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Govt. postpones House sitting at last minute without informing Opposition
PPP/C’s MP’s were seated, but no government parliamentarians showed
By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
The usual money spent to cater for a sitting of the National Assembly was already utilized yesterday when the government cancelled the 99th sitting without even informing the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C).
PPP/C’s Members of Parliament (MP) were seated, but no government parliament showed. A few minutes before the sitting was to commence, Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly, Hermina Gilgeous, told the opposition that it had been postponed.
Then, late yesterday afternoon, the coalition government released a press statement that read, “The Government of Guyana requested a postponement of the scheduled sitting of the National Assembly from today, Friday, November 16th to Monday November 19th.
The Clerk of the National Assembly has confirmed that the sitting will be held next Monday and all Members of Parliament have been formally notified.
Given the submission of a Motion of No Confidence yesterday, the Government felt it necessary and urgent to convene a meeting to apprise and brief all Members of Parliament.
There is precedent, going back to 2011 and 2012 for the request for postponement. Under the PPP government, four requests were made for postponement without explanation.
Given its majority in Parliament the Coalition Government of Guyana is confident that the motion of no confidence will be solidly defeated.”
This newspaper spoke to the Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, who said that the disrespect meted out the elected Opposition was loud.
She told Kaieteur News, “We really do not know…no one has had the decency to explain anything to us. We got there and at 10 minutes to two, the Deputy Clerk just stood up and announced that the sitting has been postponed.”
The Chief Whip continued, “We haven’t seen the Speaker or the Clerk. No one spoke to me or the Leader of the Opposition as to any reason for the postponement.”
“In addition to that, the way in which the postponement was done is totally not allowed. I remember when Mr. Granger was Leader of the Opposition, they protested when we tried to postpone the sitting, and demanded that the way to do it was that you have to come to the sitting and ask for postponement and get the approval of the House… and we were forced to do this in the last Parliament on more than one occasion.”
Teixeira lamented that that procedure was not followed this time. She said, in this case, “the Deputy Clerk just stands up, not even in a formal way, it is not on record.”
The Chief Whip said that they heard that another sitting is to be convened on Monday but nothing formal was relayed “we do not know for sure.”
“The next sitting was set for November 26, Budget day. I assume we have to have a sitting before that, because we have to deal with the constitutional bodies, which was supposed to be done today.”
“At the last sitting, we had a discussion on the constitutional bodies and how they were to be treated. It was very controversial.”
Teixeira said that the Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland, had agreed to a sitting before yesterday for the consideration of the Constitutional Bodies.
“He invited us to a meeting at one o’clock yesterday. We went, there were no government people, we waited and then they put it to this (yesterday) morning.”
She continued, “Our people went back to the meeting, no government person came. Mr. Greenidge turned up and then he realized that maybe he was in the wrong place and turned back, and then the Speaker decided not to accommodate the meeting despite the fact that there was a quorum. There were three members of the opposition and it takes three to do a quorum, but he refused to go ahead with the meeting because the government was not present.”
Teixeira said that the Speaker does not have any right to cancel the Business Committee just because the government was not there.
She said, “The rules are clear, a quorum is three for any committee meeting. We understand that he would like to have the government there, but the rules are clear.”
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