Dr. Asha Kissoon refusing to give up parliamentary seat - ANUG

Dr. Asha Kissoon refusing to give up parliamentary seat – ANUG

Mar 03, 2024 News

Dr. Asha Kissoon

Kaieteur News – A New and United Guyana (ANUG) on Saturday accused Dr. Asha Kissoon of the New Liberty Movement (TNM) of refusing to give up her parliamentary seat as agreed to in a Memorandum of Understanding among ANUG, TNM and The Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) on March 2, 2020.

In a statement issued to the media, ANUG said that Dr. Kissoon should have relinquished her seat in Parliament on behalf of her party since November 2023 in keeping with the MoU she signed.

“Dr. Asha Kissoon duly assumed the seat in Parliament on behalf of TNM. If she intended to honour the commitment made by her in the Memorandum of Understanding, Dr. Kissoon should have resigned that seat in November 2023.”

ANUG reminded that the three parties agreed to merge the votes earned by them which was sufficient to take a seat in Parliament and to share occupation of the said seat in proportion to the votes they each secured.

“The result of the election was that LJP and ANUG, each with more than 2200 votes, would occupy the single seat won by the merger for the majority of the time, while TNM, with 244 votes, was entitled to occupy the seat for 91 days,” the statement said.

When contacted on Saturday, Dr. Kissoon, who also serves as Deputy Speaker, told Kaieteur News that she has no comment to offer.

“I have no official comment my dear,” she told the Kaieteur News reporter.

Meanwhile, ANUG said that the Constitution of Guyana provides for the removal of a Member of Parliament only by resignation or by the persons removal by the representative of his party’s list, “it was clearly understood that the Memorandum of Understanding was based on trust and integrity, since it would not be enforced in Court.”

“The three parties would have to trust each other,” the statement said while reminding that after the 2020 General and Regional Elections, Lennox Shuman of the LJP occupied the single merger seat for two and a half years before resigning.

“Because TNM was allocated only a few months by virtue of the Memorandum of Understanding, and was at risk of being kept out of Parliament altogether, in the event that an early election was called in 2025, ANUG offered to permit TNM to take the seat for their allotted period immediately when Mr. Schuman demitted.”

ANUG said that Dr.Kissoon has occupied the parliamentary seat for more than twice of her permitted allocation under the signed agreement.

Describing her as an imposter, ANUG said D. Kissoon has “so far refused to relinquish her seat… against the will of the electorate as a result of her breach of trust, and has not committed in writing to ANUG to any timeline whatsoever to demit office. Her single verbal and informal promise to vacate office on 29th February 2024, three months late, has now apparently also been breached by Dr. Kissoon.”

ANUG called on Dr. Kissoon to “do the right thing” while noting that the situation is regrettable and undermines the confidence of the Guyanese people in third parties.

“ANUG reaffirms its commitment to integrity and transparency,” the statement said.

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A New and United Guyana (ANUG), Dr. Asha Kissoon, Memorandum of Understanding, parliamentary, seat

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