Up to press time last evening, the parliamentary opposition PPP/C was still awaiting a response by Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Barton Scotland to a formal complaint by Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira that the continued attendance in the National Assembly by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who is currently performing the functions of president, is in breach of the constitution
“The Prime Minister is squatting in this House if he is acting as president,” Teixeira later told reporters before noting that the PPP/C is prepared to take the matter to court if necessary. The delivery of the letter resulted in the day’s consideration of the estimates for the various government agencies, starting almost one hour late.
Scotland informed the House of Teixeira’s letter to him minutes after the sitting began, while noting that it raised a number of issues of “major importance to the House as a whole.”
He highlighted the short length of time between its delivery and the commencement of the sitting before adding that the letter required more than a “quick” response. He said a response would be issued during the course of the evening. There was no response up to the conclusion of the consideration of the estimates yesterday.
Teixeira told reporters that Nagamootoo, given the fact that he is currently performing the functions of the president, has no place in the National Assembly. She added that there is no such thing as an acting president. “It’s carrying out the functions of the office of the President and so in this case the Prime Minister has been given that,” she told reporters.
She said the constitution states that in such a case, whichever minister is carrying out the functions of the president regards his or her seat as vacant. “It doesn’t mean that the person has to resign or come out of Parliament, [it just] regards the seat as vacant and when the president returns, the minister resumes his seat. So that is all it [the constitution] says,” she said.
In her letter, the PPP/C frontbencher quoted Articles 96 (1), 103 (1) and 178 (4) of the constitution to reinforce her argument. She pointed out that the framers of the constitution “prohibit the president from participating in the National Assembly and in the approval of bills because the president is empowered to assent or not to those very bills. The framers of the constitution also went to great length in creating a clear divide between the executive and the legislature, between the president and the National Assembly. In the circumstances, while performing the office of President, the Prime Minister’s presence in the National Assembly violates the constitutional provisions referred to herein.”
She stressed to reporters that every time the president leaves the country and the Prime Minister becomes the person to carry out the functions of the president, there is an official instrument that must be signed and sworn to in front of the Chancellor of the Judiciary. That instrument, she explained, is then sent to all of the agencies, including Parliament Office, to notify them of the person carrying out the functions of the president. “And, therefore, the parliament is well aware of this issue,” she noted.
In the circumstances, she said the PPP/C is calling on the Speaker to uphold the constitution by ensuring that the Prime Minister not be in the House, not attend Parliament or any Committee and not vote. “To allow him to do that would put in jeopardy the estimates because clearly in the parliament and in the constitution there is a separation of the executive and the legislature. So you cannot have a person who is president approving the bills and at the same time being in Parliament and voting for the same bill,” she added.
“That is where the trickiness comes in and that is why the constitution is very clear—whoever is carrying out the functions of the president cannot be here. And that is why Prime Minister Samuel Hinds was never here and if you check the Hansard and the minutes of the sittings it will say or it would have been announced when we begin the Parliament that the ‘Prime Minister is excused from the sitting because he is carrying out the functions of the president’ and that was upheld all the time and we are calling on the Speaker to uphold the constitution,” she said.
Teixeira also made mention of this fact in her letter, specifically singling out the 8th, 9th and 10th Parliaments.
Asked what will happen if the Speaker does not respond favourably, she reminded that he has already indicated that he would give a ruling later in the day. “We are willing to abide and wait because we recognise it has extraordinary great importance to not only how this Parliament operates but what we approve and don’t approve and in addition to that we have indicated to him that this also could be a matter that is taken to the court so there is an option to approach the court for an interpretation,” she added.
‘Very urgent’
Teixeira acknowledged the fact that while the matter is under consideration, Nagamootoo was sitting in the Chambers actively participating in the voting. She reminded that this very issue was raised in 2015 but was not addressed. “We were shouted down when we tried to do that and we have raised it a number of times behind the scene and it has not changed and so I believe in this case, this is very urgent to the estimates,” she said.
While noting that Nagamootoo was well aware that “he has no right to be here voting whatsoever,” she pointed out that the Speaker very carefully has not been calling for “yays and nays”
“He has kind of been approaching [it] without calling for yes and no and I think he deliberately knows why he has been doing that,” she opined.
In her two-page letter to the Speaker, Teixeira noted too that there was no deviation from the norm under the tenures of either Speaker Ralph Ramkarran or Speaker Raphael Trotman.
“Since the beginning of the 11th Parliament, however, we, in the Parliamentary Opposition have noted that when the President is out of the jurisdiction that the Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo who is carrying out the ‘functions of office of the President’ attends sittings of the National Assembly and committee meetings and votes. We brought this to the attention of the House from the inception of the 11th Parliament. However, the Prime Minister has continued to attend sittings and to vote when he has been carrying out the functions of the President on several occasions over the last three (3) and seven (7) months,” she added.
She stressed to the Speaker that the Prime Minister is an elected member of the National Assembly and a member of Cabinet. Therefore, he qualifies to have been appointed by the President, to perform the functions of office of President and in fact, has been appointed on many occasions to do so in keeping with Article 96 (1) of the constitution.
Article 96 notes that whenever the President is absent from Guyana or considers it desirable so to do by reason of illness or any other cause he may, by direction in writing, authorise any member of the Cabinet, being an elected member of the National Assembly, to perform such of the functions of Office of President as he may specify and the person so authorised shall perform those functions until his authority is revoked by the President or until the functions are resumed by the President.
According to Teixeira, the language of Article 178 (4) is unequivocal; that is, once a minister, (who must be an elected member of the National Assembly) of the Cabinet is appointed to perform the functions of the office of President, then that minister’s seat in the National Assembly “shall be regarded as vacant.”
Article 178(4) states that during any period when a minister is performing the function of the Office of President under article 96, his seat in the National Assembly shall be regarded as vacant and may be temporarily filled.
She reiterated that in keeping with this Nagamootoo cannot take part in a sitting of the National Assembly nor take part in any committee meeting nor vote at any time.
“We are, therefore, formally bringing to your attention that these constitutional provisions are once again being violated and call upon you to uphold the constitution as was done by your predecessors,” she said before adding that failure to heed their concern will “expose the entire consideration of National Estimates for the 2019 Budget and any other matters before the House during this period to be infected by the germ of unconstitutionality and thereby making it liable to be set aside by a Court of competent jurisdiction, should there be a resort to such an option.”
Teixeira’s letter came days after opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo signaled that the PPP/C intended to challenge the presence of Nagamootoo in the House.
Nagamootoo has, however, maintained that Article 178 (4) does not apply to him and suggested that Jagdeo was attempting to force a constitutional crisis.
Nagamootoo argued, “I can tell you for sure that Article 178(4) does not apply to the Prime Minister; it says if the Prime Minister is not appointed to perform these functions, any minister will be appointed. So, the provision applies to any minister appointed to perform the duties or functions… and, in any case, there has been a convention that has not been touched, has not been contaminated, except by the attempt today. The Prime Minister performing any functions, one or more, has never been invited to vacate his membership of the National Assembly.”
He added, “If the president leaves the country or is inside the country, under his hands [he can] authorise the Prime Minister to carry out certain functions. We don’t know what those functions are, it could be any function and the president doesn’t have to leave the jurisdiction either to do that, he doesn’t have to…The Prime Minister remains the leader of the House for government business and the Prime Minster remains the First Vice President and the Principal Advisor to the President.”
President David Granger left Guyana last week for Cuba, where he is receiving chemotherapy treatment for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a type of cancer.
