It is not for the President and the Leader of the Opposition to set a date for the sitting of the National Assembly and for Presidential Advisor Gail Teixeira to suggest that reconvening of the House is dependent on the outcome of their engagement, is “disingenuous,” General Secretary of APNU Joe Harmon says.
On Friday, Teixeira, who is the government’s chief whip in the National Assembly, said that she is awaiting the outcome of the ongoing engagement between President Donald Ramotar and Opposition Leader David Granger before setting a date to reconvene Parliament. In a statement, Teixeira said that this engagement has to “evolve.” She also insisted that both parties had a tacit understanding the sitting could reconvene early next month. This, she said, was also based on unsuitable proposed dates on both sides.
Teixeira’s statement was in response to APNU Chief Whip Amna Ally, who accused her of stalling and it came after the joint opposition met on the situation.
The President and his team met Granger and his team inclusive of Harmon on Monday. Stabroek News was unable to contact Granger yesterday and when asked if the President and Granger had agreed that there would be no sitting of the Assembly until their talks were over, Harmon said that the issue was not raised.
“No such thing was discussed,” he said, while adding that it is not in the interest of any parties for the sitting of the House to be delayed in any manner. He said Teixeira was “very disingenuous” in trying to find an excuse to delay the sitting. “She is wrong about that,” he said, while adding that it is not for the President and the Leader of the Opposition to set a date for the sitting of the House. “Nothing like that was decided,” he stressed.
Harmon said they went into the meeting expecting that a date for local government elections would be set, while also expecting ratification of a process to address legislation passed by the House but which have not found favour with the government.
“We were expecting that government will give us a date for local government elections,” he said, while adding that this did not happen. In terms of the legislation passed by the Opposition-controlled House, he noted that Attorney-General Anil Nandlall and APNU shadow minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams had met and worked out a process by which the Bills would return to the President for assent. He said that APNU wanted a ratification of this process but the government side indicated that Nandlall was in Paris, France and therefore they could not proceed any further on the topic.
As to whether government sought any concessions as it relates to the no-confidence motion, Harmon said that, it was not discussed. “We were not prepared to budge on that,” he said. “That was not an issue on the table. We made that very clear.”
The APNU General Secretary also indicated that no date had been set for continued engagement between the President and Granger.
Proposal
Meanwhile, a date for the sitting of the National Assembly remains elusive. House Speaker Raphael Trotman told Stabroek News yesterday that tomorrow, he will put something forward to both sides of the House.
Over the past weeks, there has been a debate as to who has the authority to reconvene sittings at the end of a recess where a date has not been fixed for sittings. Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs has said that the government has to call the sitting. Former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran has said that the current Speaker is obligated to convene a sitting of Parliament soonest and has the authority to do so. Trotman has said that he has consulted with former House speakers and was considering the way forward.
When contacted yesterday, Trotman said nothing has changed. “The current position is the status quo, they haven’t agreed (to a date for the sitting),” he said. The Speaker added that tomorrow he would “put something forward” but declined to elaborate on what this would be.
In her statement on Friday, Teixeira accused Ally of publicising partial information regarding the reasons for the delay. “As Chief Whip I have abided with the engagement between the President and the Leader of the Opposition, however, it appears that Ms Ally as Opposition Whip is coming under undue pressure from the AFC and the more belligerent elements of the APNU and as a result is having a difficult time,” she said.
Teixeira said she had several discussions regarding suitable dates for the sitting to resume and there was no agreement for October.
“We, then, had a tacit understanding that it would be held in the early part of November. I reminded her and reiterated on more than one occasion that once there was an opening and the President and Leader of the Opposition were engaged in some kind of dialogue that this process should be given a chance to evolve. I told her I would await the outcome of this engagement and advised her to do the same,” Teixeira added.
Ally had said that she was unable to ascertain why Teixeira was not committing to a sitting of the National Assembly even though dates into the beginning of November have been suggested. “I don’t know why she (Teixeira) is dilly-dallying, we have come out of the recess I don’t understand why the wait… She is not rejecting the dates but she is telling me that the Leader of the Opposition and the President need to make that decision. As far as I know the Parliament Management Committee mandated that the whips agree on a date,” Ally had told Stabroek News.
The first sitting of Parliament following the end of the recess is expected to see an Alliance For Change (AFC) no-confidence motion piloted against the government. The expected passage of this motion will trigger the collapse of the government and general elections in three months. Observers say that the government appears desperate to stave off a sitting until it has exhausted the available options.
