Departing AFC leader Raphael Trotman will no longer be the party’s List Representative—a responsibility that will be passed to the new leader to be elected today.
Trotman made the announcement at the opening of the AFC’s National Conference at the St. Paul’s Retreat Centre, Vryheid’s Lust this morning.
“…I have discussed with [party chairman Khemraj] Ramjattan that once I step down and once the new leader is elected, that responsibility will pass from me to the newly elected leader,” he said.
After Trotman was elected Speaker of the House earlier this year, the former Speaker Ralph Ramkarran had argued that he could not, without any justification, wear the hats of List Representative and Speaker at the same time. Ramjattan had concurred with this view. Trotman had told Stabroek News that the party has to decide on the issue.
Writing in the PPP’s Weekend Mirror in January, Ramkarran said that a “novel situation” has arisen with Speaker Trotman also being the AFC leader and Representative of its List. “In these capacities he is the leading official and chief spokesperson of the AFC,” the former Speaker noted. “He can also remove any Member of Parliament of the AFC and replace him or her. Mr. Trotman may find great difficulty in publicly reconciling the position of Speaker with those of Leader and List Representative of the AFC. The Speaker cannot, without any justification, wear the Party Leader’s and List Representative’s hat in the morning, deciding party strategy in Parliament, and the Speaker’s hat in the afternoon, impartially presiding over the implementation of that strategy in the face of opposition to it,” he wrote.
