Latest update December 31st, 2024 12:47 AM
AFC flags seldom meetings of the National Assembly
Kaieteur News – General Secretary of the Alliance For Change (AFC) and Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Sherod Duncan has flagged the worrying trend of infrequent meetings of the National Assembly over the last year.
Opposition MP, Sherod Duncan
Duncan during an AFC held press conference on Friday told media operatives that the National Assembly has only met 16 times over the last session, but during the corresponding period under the former A Partnership for National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) government, 26 sittings were convened.
In addition, the MP pointed out that the “biased nature of the Speaker” Manzoor Nadir has resulted in a majority of Opposition Motions being thrown out. He said, “The Parliamentary Opposition has a very hard time getting meaningful Motions onto the debate floor, two or three of which were not allowed just yesterday (Thursday).”
According to him, statistics on hand suggest that 17 Opposition Motions were filed over the last year, however only a mere “five or six” made its way to the Order paper for debates in the House. “This doesn’t augur well for a government that touts themselves as being a good governance administration (with) transparency and democracy and all of that when a mere six motions would have made its way from 17 onto the Order paper.”
He said that the government is supported by the Parliamentary Speaker who resorts to the “flimsiest” of excuses to put aside the Opposition-tabled Motions. Two such Motions that were not allowed by the Speaker on Thursday sought an independent probe of the allegations made in a Vice News documentary against Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, while the other was geared towards addressing the high cost of living.
The MP also made reference to some “unfortunate events” that occurred this year in the House, citing the “dildo” remark by Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall as particularly distasteful.
Duncan explained that Parliament is likely to head into recess by August 10 and reconvene sometime in October. The MP said he is hopeful that the quality of work produced by the Assembly would be improved by the new session. “We hope that there is a truly robust Parliament and that we get more work done for the Guyanese people,” as it is the Party’s view that “the Parliament is only convened when the administration needs money and so you put a couple of things onto the session and you call it a sitting but what they are really and truly coming for is more money that is going to be misspent and mismanaged.”
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