Former President and Representative of the List for APNU+AFC, David Granger has been asked to extract the name of People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader, Aubrey Norton to replace Nicolette Henry as a Member of Parliament.
The information was related to the media by Norton at a PNCR press conference yesterday.
Henry, who served as Minister of Education under the APNU+AFC government, resigned as a Parliamentarian last month. Her resignation takes effect from March 31, 2022, after which the APNU+AFC coalition would need to fill the empty seat.
Norton succeeded Granger as Leader of the PNCR in December last year and has since then been fighting to be named as a MP so that he could be elected Leader of the Opposition. Joseph Harmon, who was shepherded into the position of Opposition Leader by Granger resigned on January 26 this year after mounting calls by PNCR members for his exit. Harmon also contested for the post of PNCR leader last December and was soundly beaten by Norton.
“As far as I know, a Member of Parliament has resigned and the Party has asked the representative of the list to extract Aubrey Norton’s name to become a Member of Parliament. I wouldn’t want to go past that. When that time comes we’ll deal with the second phase,” Norton said when asked for an update on the talks between Granger and the current PNCR leadership.
Norton is also the Chairman of APNU which is a coalition comprising the PNCR and a few smaller parties.
When asked whether he is confident that the decision of APNU would be executed by Granger, Norton said “I think the party, the people of Guyana desire that (I become an MP) and we will see how it goes.”
Granger had been accused of unilateral decision-making during his time in office and this had been a source of major contention. The most famous of those unilateral decisions was the appointment of retired Justice James Patterson as Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). That was challenged by the then Opposition PPP/C resulting in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling that the appointment was in contravention of the constitution.
Additionally, following his defeat at the 2020 polls, Granger as Representative of the APNU+AFC List handpicked MPs leaving out many senior members of the PNCR in his bid to ensure that Harmon was elected as Opposition Leader.. The AFC selected its own MPs based on the Cummingsburg Accord.
At yesterday’s press conference, when pressed, Norton was hesitant to say whether he is confident that Granger would extract his name from the list of representatives, reiterating “I would say that the process will work its way through and I believe that the People’s National Congress wants me to be a member of parliament and it will be achieved.”
“I don’t know that Mr Granger has to make that determination (on whether I am to become a member of parliament). That determination is made by the APNU, forwarded to Mr Granger who acts as the Representative of the List,” Norton added.
Norton further explained that his ascension to Parliament would only happen after Henry’s seat becomes vacant.
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 stalemate has resulted in the post of the Opposition Leader being vacant since the resignation of Harmon on January 26 this year and numerous questions have been raised about the role being played in this controversy by Granger.
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.
