APNU+AFC ministers Winston Felix and Keith Scott can once more sit in the National Assembly, according to Attorney-General Basil Williams, who has secured an interim stay of execution on a recent ruling that they could not hold seats as non-elected members.
At a hearing this morning at the Court of Appeal, acting Chancellor Justice Carl Singh granted the interim stay of execution, which Williams said allows for the ministers to attend today’s scheduled sitting of the National Assembly.
Williams filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday against the decision of former acting Chief Justice Ian Chang, who ruled that Felix and Scott cannot continue to sit as non-elected members in the National Assembly since they were both elected as part of the coalition’s list of national candidates.
In keeping with Chang’s ruling, Felix, who is Minister of Citizenship, and Scott, who is Junior Social Protection Minister, did not take up their seats on Monday when the consideration of budget estimates continued.
Although the judge did not issue an order directing Speaker Dr Barton Scotland to disallow them from taking their seats, the Speaker announced that as a result of information regarding the court’s decision, the duo “will not be occupying their seats today.” He also said that he would have requested of the two members not to occupy their seats. “I can find no other way by which one must respond to a decision of the court other than by respect and submission. There was no equivocation …at acceptance. The acceptance of a decision of the court must be unequivocal at all times,” he said, while noting that the first obligation is to obey the decisions of the court at all times and then proceed from there.
