No need for splitting hairs

Mar 11, 2022 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – There is no semantic distinction between resigning and an intention to resign. As such, when someone indicates an intention to resign by a specific date, it amounts to a resignation.
This issue has been highlighted recently following letters to the Speaker of the National Assembly by two APNU+AFC members of parliament. In both cases, the persons wrote indicating their intention to resign by a specific date.
One of the youthful leaders of the PNCR was circumspect about the last resignation letter submitted by the former Leader of the Opposition. Mr. Joseph Harmon. According to him, the letter indicated an intention to resign and not a resignation.
Judging from recent reports on social media, the Speaker appears to have adopted a similar line. He is reported to have said, “There might be semantics, but saying I intend to resign at a certain date doesn’t say that I have resigned, or I am resigning effective March 10.”
Semantics is about meaning of words. In this instance there is a squabbling about whether ‘intention to resign’ and ‘resignation’ are two different things.
There is no need for the semantics. A letter of intent to resign is the same as a letter of resignation. A letter of resignation is really an intention to resign because the resignation does not take effect until a specified date. As such, unless the resignation takes immediate effect, any letter of resignation becomes an intention to resign by a specified date.
A person does not resign from a position until the effective date of the resignation. As such, a person is still considered to be an employee or a member of a grouping until the effective resignation date. It is not until that effective date reaches that the person can be said to have resigned. It is for this reason that in giving notice of their resignation, some persons would indicate their intention to resign, that is their intention to resign by or on a particular date. Once that date reaches, and there is no recanting or retracting of the resignation, it stands.
Therefore there is no need for semantics as to whether the two parliamentarians have resigned. They each have given a specific effective date when their resignations will take effect.
The Speaker therefore, should treat the correspondence which he has in his possession as formal resignations. He should move ahead with the process of having these persons replaced.
That process involves first, declaring the seats vacant. It is only after this happens that the Speaker can then write to Representative of the APNU+AFC list.
A seat is deemed vacant in specific circumstances. If a person resigns, then the seat held by that person becomes vacant unless the President indicates that the person has resigned for the purpose of giving further service to the public, in which case the person once eligible can be re-elected. A seat is also vacant if a Member indicates in writing to the Speaker that he or she will not support the List from which his or her name was extracted, or indicates in writing that he or she is now supporting another List. In addition a seat may be vacant if the Representative of the List issues a recall of any member.
The PNCR is behaving as if it has a right to make a nomination or a suggestion as to who should replace the resigned Ministers. It has no such right. The determination as to who should replace the resigned parliamentarians is the prerogative of the Representative of the List.
It is not automatic that a newly elected leader of the PNCR is entitled to a seat. However, it would be unusual to deny such a request once the person is on the List from which names are to be extracted to become members of the National Assembly.
The Speaker has received two letters of resignation from two APNU+AFC members of the National Assembly. Those resignations are valid, unless recanted prior to taking effect. The Speaker has to accept the legality of those resignations and not be drawn into semantics about the difference between an intention to resign and a resignation. There is no difference between the two.
Upon the effective date of those resignations, the Speaker should declare those seats vacant. The seats only become vacant upon the effective date of the resignations. When the effective dates arrive, the Speaker should write to the Representative of the APNU+AFC List indicating that 2 parliamentary seats are vacant and requesting that replacements be extracted from the List.
The Representative of the List can employ whatever system he wants for the replacements. And while he can bypass the Leader of the PNCR this is not likely to happen.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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