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Parliament submits budget for Office of Opposition Leader without input from parties
(Kaieteur News) – Despite the impasse over the election of a Leader of the Opposition, the Parliament Office has already submitted its budgetary proposal to the Government of Guyana, including allocations for the operation of the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, without any input from the main Opposition party- We Invest in Nationhood WIN) and the other parties.
The 13th Parliament convened on November 3, 2025, when Members of Parliament (MPs) from both the government and non-government sides were sworn in. Since that initial sitting, however, the National Assembly has not met again. During that period, political party We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), which holds the most opposition seats, have repeatedly called on Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, to convene a meeting of opposition MPs to facilitate the election of an Opposition Leader.
Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs
Those calls were met with silence until Tuesday, when Nadir addressed the nation and announced that the meeting would be held on Monday, the same day the government is expected to present the 2026 Budget.
Despite the impasse, Parliament Office has confirmed that it submitted budgetary proposals for the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, even though no leader has yet been elected. Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, confirmed this during a telephone interview with Kaieteur News on Wednesday. “Yeah we submitted a proposal for salaries, upkeep of the office and so on. Yes we did. To pay rental for a building and so on,” Isaacs said.
He explained that the estimates are generally based on previous allocations, noting, “Well I think what I normally do. We look at the previous years allocation and we increase it just by five or ten percent, not much.”
Isaacs added that the allocation for the office would only be known after the budget process is completed. “But we wouldn’t know until the budget is passed,” he said.
In 2025, the Committee of Supply approved $32.5 million for the Office of the Leader of the Opposition. That allocation, unchanged from the previous year, formed part of the $2.1 billion approved for the Parliament Office.
Meanwhile, APNU Parliamentary Chief Whip Ganesh Mahipaul said it is customary for budget submissions relating to the opposition to be routed through the Parliament Office. “It is customary for a submission to be made from the opposition to the Parliament, for the parliament to include in their submissions,” Mahipaul told Kaieteur News during a telephone interview on Wednesday.
He continued, “But what has been happening is that the government has been putting specific sums based on what they conclude is the affordability of the state.”
Mahipual added that while in recent times the recurrent expenditure has been about 35 million and the capital has been 5 million, he does not know if that will change for this year’s budget. Mahipaul reminded that similar to Parliament Office, the government agencies, the judiciary and other state entities would make their budget proposals to the Ministry of Finance, it does not means the requested sum will be approved.
“So the Parliament could very well request $10 billion but the state could always claim that they cannot afford to give them $10 billion and instead allocate $2 billion for parliament, and the same goes for [other agencies],” Mahipaul stated.
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