PPP worries Speaker “may not act fairly” when handling no-confidence motion

Nov 21, 2018 News

The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) is worried that the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, may not act fairly and independently in his handling of the no-confidence motion filed in the name of Bharrat Jagdeo.

Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo

At a press conference on Monday, Jagdeo highlighted the fact that Dr. Scotland was chosen by the government. He posited that Dr. Scotland knows full well that if the Motion is debated and is then successful, “his job is in jeopardy, so there is that self-interest.”
Further, Jagdeo opined that in the past, Dr. Scotland demonstrated partiality to the government.
However, Jagdeo said that he hopes the Speaker “can find it in himself to act professionally on this occasion and stand up to the Government” by prioritizing the No-Confidence Motion.
Jagdeo said that in democracies around the world, no-confidence motions take precedence over any other business of the House. He said that there are examples of this right in the region.
But, Jagdeo said that he suspects, based on feedback that he has been getting, that the APNU+AFC government will decide on when they would like the motion to be debated. He said that the government will most likely try to push for the debate to happen after Budget 2019 has been read, debated, deliberated and passed in the Committee of Supply.
He said that that should not be allowed because, “…what if the motion is successful?”
Nevertheless, Jagdeo stressed that it is up to the Speaker, who is the head of the legislative branch, to decide when the motion is debated. “We are hoping that the decision will be made and the matter will be debated prior to the budget,” Jagdeo said.
He continued, “We will be watching carefully to see how the Speaker acts in this matter because it’s not the executive that makes that decision; it has to be the Speaker.”
The Opposition Leader stressed that the Speaker has not just a duty to the Government, but to all parliamentarians, and that he should therefore exercise that duty fairly and impartially.
“We expect the Speaker to not depart from what is international practice and norms in relation to a no-confidence motion…if the Speaker were to depart from those international norms, then it would not be good for democracy, and, I think, for his own credibility.”

Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland

Just last week, the government postponed the 99th sitting of the National Assembly without even informing the Opposition.
PPP/C’s Members of Parliament were seated, but no government parliamentarian 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.
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.”

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