Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo’s office has alleged that heavily armed persons associated with the opposition were within the precincts of Parliament during the consideration of the no-confidence motion on December 21st last year.
According to the release, the Parliamentary Management Committee (PMC) will meet today to deal mainly with security issues in and around Public Buildings, an issue which was placed on the “front burner” following the mentioned claim.
It noted that the PMC was summoned to meet last week, but the meeting was rescheduled after the opposition members asked to be excused from the sitting.
Parliamentarian Anil Nandlall who is a member of the committee yesterday decried the claim.
“It is simply a different expression of the desperation which government is conjuring and concocting to avoid the constitutional consequences of the no confidence motion. I would not pay much mind to these very immature antics and I won’t dignify such a meeting with my presence,” he told Stabroek News in an invited comment.
Nandlall added that he is shocked that one month after passage of the motion rather than resign in compliance with the clear and unambiguous language of the constitution government is “engineering fabricated allegations.”
“This is no different from the arguments peddled in court and public domain of the like that 33 is not the majority of 65, that (former APNU+AFC MP) Charrandass (Persaud) was bribed by the opposition and that Article 106 is unconstitutional,” he said, adding that Parliament should be in closing down mode because by now the President ought to be issuing a proclamation to dissolve the parliament as elections are due by March 19.
The PMC is a bi-partisan Committee chaired by Speaker Barton Scotland with 10 members, five from each side of the House.
On December 21 a vote by then APNU+AFC member Persaud on the opposition-sponsored motion led to it being declared carried by Speaker Barton Scotland on a vote of 33 Members of Parliament in favour to 32 against.
The government publicly accepted the ruling but later recanted.
The Speaker later refused an invitation by the government to reverse his decision on the motion, saying it could seek redress in court. Three separate legal challenges were subsequently filed and acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire, who has already received written submissions and heard legal arguments, is expected to hand down her decisions in each matter tomorrow.
