The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) is currently discussing the validity of the December 21 no-confidence vote, according to executive member Dr David Hinds who disclosed yesterday that all the parties making up the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) grouping recently met and were briefed on what government has done since the motion was passed.
Hinds declined to say where or when the meeting was held but Stabroek News subsequently learnt that the meeting took place at the Ministry of the Presidency on Thursday.
The no-confidence motion, which was lodged with parliament office by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on November 15, was passed after government MP Charrandas Persaud defected from the government benches and voted `yes’. He subsequently expressed disappointment with how the APNU+AFC government was operating and said that he voted according to his conscience. .
Hinds told Stabroek News that the WPA had written APNU requesting a meeting which was subsequently held. He said at this meeting of the APNU Executive, top leaders of each of the parties were in attendance.
Stabroek News has learnt that a PNCR executive meeting was also held on Thursday afternoon at Congress Place. The PNCR is the largest party in APNU.
Hinds said at the APNU meeting, the parties were updated on what the government has done since the passage of the no-confidence motion. Much of that information has been transmitted to the public by the government, he said, while adding that a more substantive meeting is scheduled to be held when President David Granger, the APNU Leader, returns from treatment in Cuba.
Granger left Guyana on Christmas Day to undergo another round of chemotherapy for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a form of cancer. It is unclear when precisely he will return but he is expected to meet Jagdeo next month.
Though Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Barton Scotland has announced the success of the motion, there has been debate about its validity with some claiming that it was not carried since 34 and not 33 votes were required.
Attorney Nigel Hughes is insisting that an absolute majority is half plus one. “Half of the National Assembly is 33 members not 32,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday.
In another post, he contended “There are sixty five members of the house. Mathematically one half of the house is 32.5 members. There is no such thing as a half member so half of the house is 33 members. This is because you have to round up to identify half of the house. For a no-confidence motion to pass and be valid the motion has to enjoy more votes that one half of the full house i.e. 34 votes. The house voted 33:32. 33 is a rounding down of what constitutes half of the house. The motion consequently was not carried. But in classic Guyana style we have embarrassed ourselves again.”
There have been mixed reactions to Hughes’ analysis but he continues to insist that his interpretation is correct.
Former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran, former Attorney General Anil Nandlall and the Guyana Bar Association have all publically disagreed with Hughes.
Asked whether the WPA has any views on this, Hinds said that the party has not come to a definitive position on exactly what ought to be done.
“We are still in discussion and as soon as we arrive at a consensus, we would inform the public,” he said before adding that at this point, the party is looking at the legal and political arguments coming from all sides.
“For now we can say that the WPA will not be party to any course of action that falls outside the rule of law and the constitution. However, we think that there is a gathering consensus that we have entered unfamiliar territory. As such we should be a bit patient,” he stressed.
According to Hinds, the government in the end has to make sure that “we do nothing that we could regret; nothing that stirs up instability and unnecessary rancour. There are deep emotions on both sides of the political divide and this must be taken under consideration.”
He said that the WPA believes that in the end, “we must come out of this a more matured nation rather than a more diminished one. So we urge patience and prudence as we work through this difficult period. We have already scored our political points on both sides. It’s now time for commonsense and consensus.”
