It is more than likely that PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton will have to wait until the resignation of APNU+AFC MP Nicolette Henry takes effect on March 31st before being able to enter Parliament and be elected Opposition Leader.
“He will wait it out because he knows that it is inevitable that he will go into Parliament,” a PNCR Executive told Stabroek News yesterday.
Another official said that “to the best of my knowledge no other option is being explored at this time.”
He would add, “It isn’t long now. The budget debates are over and all of that so there is no rush… Everything will work itself out, we are certain of that.”
Calls to Norton’s phone by this newspaper went unanswered.
Henry announced her resignation last week Wednesday but only submitted her resignation letter this week to Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir while stating that it takes effect on March 31st 2022.
Norton had been hoping to enter Parliament to give the Opposition Leader’s closing address on the budget on Friday but this did not materialise as divisions within A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) appear to have gotten into the way.
A meeting of elders of the PNCR scheduled for this week has been canceled as a key member is not well while another had pressing matters, this newspaper was yesterday told.
The Group was scheduled to meet this week to help craft a solution to the crisis that has prevented Norton from entering Parliament more than two months after he was elected at the party’s biennial congress.
The stalemate has resulted in the post of the Opposition Leader being vacant since the resignation of Joseph Harmon and numerous questions have been raised about the role being played in this controversy by former President and immediate past party leader, David Granger who continues to occupy the post of Representative of the APNU+AFC List. Norton’s supporters want Granger to give up the role as Representative of the List as it is the Representative who has to sign off on changes to the parliamentary lineup.
Veteran PNCR member and former Prime Minister Hamilton Green was on Sunday confident that there would be a resolution to the impasse soon.
“The situation is unfortunate at this time but I think we will sort it out soon. I think they will rely a lot on the advice of the Council of Elders and they will sort it out,” he told this newspaper.
When a Member of Parliament resigns there then exists a vacancy in the House that the party in question would have to fill. It is the duty of the Clerk of the National Assembly to inform the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the Chief Election Officer (CEO) of the name of the member who resigned and which party they represented.
It is on that basis the CEO would then write to the Representative of the List of that party, Granger in this instance, requesting that they extract a name from the list they would have submitted before the elections.
The name of that person is then extracted and the Representative of the List then writes to GECOM informing them of the proposed replacement so that a certificate of election could be issued.
“The certificate of election says this person was elected for whichever party and it is on that basis the person could then be made a member of the National Assembly,” a GECOM official has explained.
Still unknown is what Granger will do when advised by GECOM of the vacancy.
