A strenuous effort by the Government to have today’s sitting of the National Assembly adjourned to further discuss disagreements on at least two of four local government bills was defeated by the combined opposition who voted down the motion brought by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds.
Hinds by way of letter on Wednesday had informed that today’s sitting was adjourned much to the consternation of the opposition. The opposition protested and House Speaker Raphael Trotman then said that the House should be convened to consider whether there should be an adjournment.
When it met this afternoon Hinds announced that the government had issues with two of the local government bills and that more talks need to take place between the two sides.
However, at the sitting today, Opposition Leader David Granger said that no deal would be consummated in the 13-day postponement the government was seeking as there was no agreement on the table.
In a sometimes heated debate between the two sides the opposition posited that the government’s real reason for asking for an adjournment is to broker a deal on the two measures that were defeated last week that dealt with the Amaila Falls Hydro project. They pointed out that the fact that Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud was absent from the House demonstrated that the government had no intention of debating the bills since it was the minister who would have had to reintroduce them following the select committee process.
The government maintained that it supports the bills and that those along with the two Amaila Falls matters could be discussed and agreements reached before the start of the parliamentary recess.
But in the end the motion to adjourn was defeated and the government then deferred all of its business – including the local government bills – leaving the lone opposition matter – maritime deaths to be addressed.
