PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton has been chosen to fill one of the two vacant seats on the opposition’s side of the National Assembly but the sloth of the process in them officially being sworn in is concerning and an embarrassment, AFC Leader Khemraj Ramjattan says.
“I know that Mr Norton has been named as one, but the other person… has to be named by the executive of the APNU. I am very very concerned because you don’t want to see your opposition without two sitting members for any lengthy period and especially without an Opposi-tion Leader. It must come from the APNU component. It is somewhat embarrassing at this stage,” Ramjattan last evening told the Stabroek News.
“It should be filled as quickly as possible,” he added.
Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, yesterday told this newspaper that Parliament had dispatched correspondence to APNU+AFC Represen-tative of the List, former President David Granger, informing him of the need to fill the two vacancies. “The letter was sent to Mr. Granger,” Isaacs noted.
On February 2, former Minister of Education, Nicolette Henry, signalled her intention to resign but in later correspondence informed that it would not take effect until yesterday, March 31, 2022.
Then on the 5th of March, former Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon tendered his resignation and that took effect from March 15, 2022.
But up to late yesterday, Chief Election Officer (CEO), Vishnu Persaud, informed that he had received no correspondence from Granger for the extraction of any name.
PNCR sources told this newspaper that Granger is currently in Cuba. How-ever, no one could say if it was for medical reasons as each echoed the position that no one in the party is informed of Granger’s actions or whereabouts. Granger has been treated in Cuba for lymphoma and has travelled their occasionally for checkups.
“I cannot say where he is. All we heard is that he is not at Pearl [the location of his residence] and that he is out of the country,” one source said.
“Like I have said before, Mr Granger doesn’t share his thoughts and plans with anyone, even when he was Leader [of the party and president]. So when Mr Granger will act is [as] good a guess for all of us. All of us,” another posited.
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 then the duty of the Clerk of the National Assembly to inform GECOM and the CEO. 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 PNCR disclosed weeks ago that Granger has been written to informing him that current party leader, Norton, should be named as one of the replacements. The party is yet to decide on a name to fill the other seat but there are senior members advocating for the return of Volda Lawrence to the House citing her vast political and financial knowledge.
Questions remain as to what Granger will do when he is invited to name replacements. The PNCR has argued that it is the party that must make these decisions and Granger simply implements them. The absence of an Opposition Leader is preventing a number of constitutional consultations with the President from occurring.
