(Jamaica Gleaner) Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas has made a calculated move to save his government from toppling.
Thomas who is facing a no-confidence motion has written to Governor General Sir Carlyle Glean asking that the Parliament be prorogued sixth months early.
The seventh Grenadian Parliament opened on March 29 this year and was scheduled to come to an end on March 31 next year.
Thomas’ decision to cut the life of the Parliamentary year means that when the next session begins, the no-confidence motion against him would have fallen off Parliament’s Order Paper and would need to re-tabled if it is ever to be debated.
A brief statement from Office of the Prime Minister yesterday said a date for the commencement of the new session of the eighth Parlia-ment will be announced.
The Parliament has not sat since August, shortly after the no-confidence motion was tabled by government backbencher, Karl Hood.
In May, Hood resigned as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Thomas’ troubled government which has an 11-4 majority.
Hood is one of four MPs of the National Democratic Congress sitting as backbenchers in the House of Representatives.
There was widespread speculation that those four backbenchers as well as the four opposition members would have teamed up to provide the eight-vote majority needed to push through the no-confidence motion.
It’s why there had been increasing calls for the government to convene the parliamentary sittings.
“The people have long gone back to work after the carnival. As MPs we must also go back to work,” government backbencher Peter David is quoted as saying in the Grenadian media. “The motion presently before the parliament should be given the opportunity to be debated in the House of Represen-tatives.”
Opposition Leader Dr Keith Mitchell had also called for the debate on the motion saying the failure to have it was entirely contrary to the principles and practices of democracy which risks damaging Grenada’s image in the international and regional community.
