Political activists Frederick Kissoon and Mark Benschop are proposing that attorney Nigel Hughes be considered for Speaker, while saying that the opposition APNU and AFC need to move beyond the current nominees that have brought them to an impasse.
Negotiations between the opposition groups are gridlocked, with APNU suggesting Deborah Backer and Cammie Ramsaroop for the post and AFC refusing to budge from its nominee, Moses Nagamootoo.
In a joint press release, Kissoon and Benschop said they are alarmed at the open disagreement between APNU and the AFC on the issue. They added that the public imbroglio over the choice of a Speaker has deflated the nation and is fuelling pessimism in Guyana. Further, they opine that the groups “have to know that they are entering into dangerous waters with the continuous bickering.”
In the wake of this, they acknowledge that while the names submitted “are citizens of fine quality whose political activism both in Guyanese history and in their respective ways have done great service to Guyana, there has to be an immediate end to the impasse.”
Kissoon and Benschop, who note that their “assistance in the opposition’s campaign in the recent general elections was not without some help,” suggested Hughes after long analysis of the strengths that he will bring to Parliament. They argue that neither APNU nor the AFC can deny that Hughes is respected throughout the length and breadth of the nation and is one of the world’s most committed human rights lawyers. He has also single-handedly exposed the perversity of the Bharrat Jagdeo presidency through his appearance in a recent libel case, they added. “This case has gone down in history and may have been responsible in ways we may never know for the particular result of the 2011 elections,” they said.
