Speaker Raphael Trotman has moved for the National Assembly to meet next week, after concluding that no direction from the government is needed.
In a letter yesterday to the leaders of the government, main opposition APNU and the AFC, Trotman announced that he has asked Clerk Sherlock Isaacs to fix a sitting of the National Assembly for November 6. He said he is of the firm belief following consultations with Isaacs and former Speakers Sase Narain and Ralph Ramkarran that the Stand-ing Orders have already settled the issue of when the National Assembly is to meet when a date is not fixed. It is left to be seen if Isaacs will act on the Speaker’s request, given his belief that precedent establishes that government needs to set a date.
Trotman’s decision comes in the wake of an impasse between the government and opposition whips on the date for the resumption of sittings and scrutiny over whether anyone is vested with the authority to convene a parliamentary sitting if government has not set a date. The Donald Ramotar administration has been accused of delaying the sitting, in order to stall a bid by the opposition party AFC to move a no-confidence motion against the government.
Although Trotman said the Assembly should resume with the agenda that existed before the recess, the AFC has already indicated that it would move for its motion to be given priority at the first sitting after the recess. The motion, which already has the pledged support of the main opposition APNU that is needed for its passage, would force the government to resign and for new general elections to be held within 90 days.
In his letter, Trotman argued that the “untenable and unhealthy situation” of the National Assembly not having met since July 10 cannot be allowed to continue any longer since “there is no state of national emergency or otherwise” preventing it from meeting. “In fact, on the contrary, I make bold to say that there are myriad issues of national import that require our immediate attention,” he said.
At the last sitting, the Assembly was adjourned to “a date to be fixed” and Isaacs has held that Standing Order 8(2) does not authorise the Speaker to call a sitting where there is no fixed date for the next sitting.
Trotman said he was in complete agreement with Isaacs as it relates to Standing Order 8 (2) but noted that it “cannot mean that the National Assembly cannot be convened unless by agreement; especially where such agreement appears elusive to even impossible.”
He added, “In this regard, I have found favour with the opinion rendered by the former Speakers of the National Assembly, which in effect states that the National Assembly shall meet “day by day”; unless otherwise decided by the National Assembly, and that as the Assembly automatically went into recess on August 10, 2014, so too did it automatically come out of recess on October 10, 2014. There-fore, the House should have been convened forthwith on the first working day thereafter.”
Trotman added that this opinion supported one that he himself had rendered in a ruling, in 2012. In that instance, he had stated: “Once the President issues a Proclamation to summon Parliament under the powers of Article 69 of the Constitution, the presumption is that the National Assembly will sit every day (except Saturdays and Sundays) after the day of its first sitting. However, a Minister may move a motion for resolution by the Assembly that the “next day” not be the day immediately following.”
As a result, Trotman explained that he believes that when the Assembly adjourned in July to a “date to be fixed,” this was done in error. “…[A]nd for that I take full responsibility as an open-ended adjournment is, in my opinion, tantamount to a violation of the constitutional mandate for the National Assembly to meet day by day,” he said.
Added to that, he holds that the adjournment to “a date to be fixed” was superseded by the event of the Assembly entering into the annual recess on August 10, 2014. As a result, he said the next day on which the Assembly should have met should have been Monday, October 13, 2014 as October 12, 2014 was a Sunday. “No direction from the Government or the Speaker is required to re-convene the sittings in this regard. Indeed, to support this view, Committee meetings have resumed without an instruction or direction having to be given,” he added.
On Friday, government Chief Whip Gail Teixeira said that she was awaiting the outcome of the ongoing engagement between President Donald Ramotar and Opposition Leader David Granger before setting a date to reconvene the Assembly.
However, General Secretary of APNU Joe Harmon refuted this and said that setting a date for the Assembly was not on the agenda for the engagement. Ramkarran, meanwhile, said the explanation given by Teixeira demonstrated contempt for the people and emphasised the need for Trotman to bring an end to the situation without delay.
