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Opposition Chief Whip seeks Court order to have Parliamentary Secretaries removed
Opposition Chief Whip, Christopher Jones.
Kaieteur News – A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+ AFC) Member of Parliament (MP) and Opposition Chief Whip, Christopher Jones, has filed an action in the High Court seeking an order to have Parliamentary Secretaries, Sarah Browne and Vikash Ramkissoon, removed from the National Assembly.
According to the Fixed Date Application (FDA) filed by Jones, the party is seeking several declarations inter alia that the two parliamentary secretaries are not lawful members of the National Assembly; that they were not lawfully appointed to the position Parliamentary Secretary of the Government of Guyana.
The Opposition MP is seeking an order directing the Speaker of the National Assembly, to prevent Browne and Ramkissoon from sitting in and or participating in the business of the National Assembly of the 12th Parliament of Guyana.
Parliamentary Secretary Vikash Ramkissoon.
Parliamentary Secretary Sarah Browne.
The case is being represented by Attorneys-at-law, Senior Counsel Roysdale Ford, Mayo Robertson, Raphael Trotman, Geeta Chandan-Edmond, Amanza Walton-Desir, Olayne Joseph and Darren Wade.
In the application, the Opposition Chief Whip contends that not more than four Ministers and two Parliamentary Secretaries shall be appointed by the President from among persons who are qualified to be elected as member of the National Assembly.
The document states that as Articles 103 (3) and 186 of the Constitution paragraph (1) dictates that Parliamentary Secretaries may be appointed from among persons who are elected members of the National Assembly or are qualified to be elected as such members.
According to the document, Article 86 (1) states that the Parliamentary Secretaries may be appointed from among persons who are elected members of the National Assembly or are qualified to be elected as such members.
“Paragraph (1) shall have effect in relation to any period between a dissolution of Parliament and the day on which the next election of members of the Assembly is held as if Parliament had not been dissolved…A Parliamentary Secretary who was not an elected member of the Assembly at the time of his appointment shall (unless he becomes such a member) be a member of the Assembly by virtue,” the document continued.
The application noted that Browne and Ramkissoon were not elected members of the National Assembly as Articles 60 (2), 160 (1) and (3) (a) and 232 provides: that subject to the provisions of Article 160 (2), the number of members of the National Assembly shall be elected in accordance with the system of proportional representation prescribed in Article 160 (1).”
This is the second case filed by Jones of such a nature.
Earlier this month, Chief Justice (Ag), Roxane George-Wiltshire, handed down a decision that Minister of Tourism Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond, is not a lawful member of the National Assembly, given that she was a US citizen at the time she was sworn in by President Irfaan Ali.
Jones had filed the action after it was discovered that US records revealed that Walrond was still a citizen of the USA when she was sworn in as the Minister and Member of Parliament.
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