Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman has not sought legal advice on whether he has the authority to reconvene the National Assembly.
The National Assembly’s annual recess ended on October 10. However, up to now there is no word on when the likely date for the first sitting is going to be after the government and opposition Chief Whips failed to reach an agreement on it.
At the same time the AFC has been seeking for the sitting to be held so that its no confidence motion against the government can be debated and voted on. Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs, however, has suggested that under the Standing Orders, the government has to fix a date before any sitting can be called.
According to Standing Order 8 (2), “If, during an adjournment of the Assembly, it is represented to the Speaker by the Government, or the Speaker is of the opinion, that the public interest requires that the Assembly should meet on a day earlier than that to which it stands adjourned, the Speaker may give notice accordingly and the Assembly shall meet at the time stated in such notice.”
Isaacs told Stabroek News last week that it was not possible in his view for the Speaker to set a date and that the Speaker only had the authority to adjust a date should the public interest arise.
He said that as far as he was concerned, there was nothing within the Standing Orders that would allow the opposition to potentially call a sitting of the National Assembly.
He noted that the Standing Order 8 (2) had a “catch” that ensured the Speaker would only have the authority to call an earlier sitting once the government had set a date.
Asked yesterday whether he has sought legal advice on the issue, Trotman responded in the negative, while adding that is the function of the Clerk to determine whether legal advice is necessary.
Former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran has since taken the position that in the absence of any procedure to reconvene the Assembly and in light of the ruling that the National Assembly is adjourned to the “next sitting day,” Trotman should convene the National Assembly as soon as possible.
“…the Speaker was obliged to have convened the National Assembly on October 11 [the day after the parliamentary recess ended], pursuant to the authority of S.O 8(1),” Ramkarran writes in his latest Conversation Tree column, published on his blog and in today’s Sunday Stabroek.
“Having failed to do so, he should lose no further time and should convene the National Assembly at the earliest possible opportunity… Every day that goes by without a sitting of the National Assembly constitutes a violation of the Standing Orders.
This is a matter, simple as it might appear, that is fundamental to our parliamentary democracy. There should be no dispute about something as basic as how and when the National Assembly can and should meet.
This needs to be resolved now,” he adds.
Although government’s decision to delay the sitting has raised questions, particularly given the fact that important business, including the AFC’s no confidence motion, is expected to be on the House’s agenda, it hasn’t always rushed to reconvene the Assembly. In 2013, Parliament went into recess on August 10 and the first sitting after the recess ended was on November 7.
