Opposition Leader David Granger has announced that the main opposition APNU will withhold support from certain government bills in the National Assembly unless it gets an assurance from the executive that bills already passed would receive presidential assent and those already enacted would be operationalised.
This is according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, which noted Granger’s dismay that President Donald Ramotar has not assented to four bills passed by the National Assembly. Three of the bills—the Fiscal Management and Account-ability (Amendment) Bill, 2012; Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Bill, 2013; Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2013–were tabled and passed by the combined opposition parties,
using their one-seat majority in the National Assembly and over concerns by government over their constitutionality.
Ramotar has said that he would not assent to bills passed without executive input. The remaining bill, the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2012, was passed with the support of both government and the opposition but Ramotar subsequently said that he found the bill to be unconstitutional.
Granger, according to the statement from his office, has called on President Donald Ramotar to assent to bills passed by the National Assembly. It recalled that the president had signalled, in his inaugural address to the Tenth Parliament on February 10, 2012, that the parliamentary make-up dictated that consensus and compromise should be sought, while the temptation to believe that any party can ride roughshod over another should be resisted.
“The Opposition Leader pointed out that the President’s decision was contemptuous of the authority of the National Assembly and injurious to relations based on “consensus and compromise” between the Executive and Legislative branches of government which the President’s inaugural ad-dress promised,” the statement added.
As a result of the situation, it said Granger announced that APNU has decided to withhold support of certain bills brought to the National Assembly by the Executive until and unless the executive gives an assurance that bills already passed by the National Assembly will be assented to, or have their re-submission and passage facilitated in the National Assembly. The executive, it said too, would also have to give an assurance that the bills to which the President has already assented would be operationalised without delay.
Granger expressed his willingness to meet the President as early as possible to discuss, in the spirit of “consensus and compromise,” the issues arising from its concerns, the statement added.
