“We are bringing out the PPP top guns, the best of our leadership,” PPP/C’s Chief Whip Gail Teixeira said of the five opposition speakers slated to speak on the no-confidence motion against the APNU+AFC administration today.
Apart from Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo, the other speakers were not identified. The session is set to last for at least eight hours with Jagdeo beginning the debate at 2pm and speaking for 45 minutes as provided for by Standing Order 38 (9).
Other speakers are allowed a maximum of 30 minutes unless the Speaker grants extensions of time for periods of 15 minutes following a motion moved for such extensions.
Additionally, though the mover of the motion is allowed a reply after all the other Members present have addressed the House, it is likely that the last speaker will be from the government benches as Standing Order 39(2) provides at “a Minister may conclude a debate on any motion which is critical of the Government or reflects adversely on or is calculated to bring discredit upon the Government or a Government Officer.”
All 65 MPs are expected to be in parliament when the final vote is taken tonight. APNU+AFC control 33 seats and the PPP/C 32. The PPP/C will have to have a majority for the motion to be carried. If the motion is carried general elections would have to be called.
Teixeira would likely be one of the speakers along with Clement Rohee, Anil Nandlall and Irfaan Ali. The selections may give a hint as to which direction the party is moving in relation to its presidential candidate for 2020. Others who could be in the line-up would include Dr Frank Anthony.
Stabroek News reached out to government Chief Whip Amna Ally for information on the government speakers but up to press time, her phone went unanswered. Ally would likely be one of the five along with PM Moses Nagamootoo, Volda Lawrence, Joseph Harmon and Khemraj Ramjattan. Attorney General Basil Williams could also be on the list.
Meantime, the opposition has challenged government to “answer the real issues” instead of spewing “senseless lies and half-truths” and using President David Granger’s illness as a “political football” in relation to the no-confidence motion.
In a statement yesterday, the PPP/C criticised leaders of the APNU+AFC for using Granger’s illness as grounds for attacking the motion.
According to the statement, the motion was filed only after it was reported that the “President was in good health and that he was in Cuba merely for ‘medical investigations’.” The party argued that since the President has no vote in the National Assembly, his presence in or absence from the country, is immaterial to the motion.
The motion was filed one day after the Ministry of the Presidency announced that President David Granger was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. The opposition, however, maintained that the announcement of the President’s diagnosis was made after its filing and accused government of maintaining a propaganda machinery which “has been churning out one wild and baseless allegation after another.”
The party has claimed that the AFC has resorted to delusions by referring to “rumours of a diabolical plot by the PPP and moves to disrupt the House when the vote on the No-Confidence Motion fails.”
“This is not merely being delusional, but it is flagrant mischief because the nation is aware that it is the APNU+AFC who have called out persons ‘in the thousands’ to Parliament, to show their ‘confidence in the Government’,” the statement said. It added that “were the PPP as irresponsible and reckless as they are, we could have reciprocated. However, we have not, in recognition of the horrible consequences which can result.”
Accordingly, the opposition has concluded that “this is the type of unadulterated stupidity which disqualifies this grouping of persons from ever holding Government again.”
Further, the statement said that the party was in no way involved in setting the date for debate and therefore cannot be accused of attempting to disrupt the holiday season.
“When this motion was tabled a month ago, the PPP requested that the motion be debated earliest, more specifically, even before the reading of the National Budget. This request was rejected. The Government fixed the motion to be debated on the 21st of December. Recently, the Leader of the Opposition expressed a willingness to have the motion debated after the Christmas season and in early January. The Leader of the Opposition, having no control over and having not participated in the motion being fixed for debate on the 21st of December, made this suggestion out of concern for the disruption it may have on the lives of the ordinary Guyanese and the business community during the festive season,” the statement said.
Prime Minister Nagamootoo was accused of behaving in a “thoughtless” manner for rejecting the suggestion. The party argued that after recognising “an opening to exhibit egotistical bravado and arrogant brinkmanship,” the PM is now responding to “public pressure for a postponement of the motion…”
Nagamootoo, as well as AFC leader Raphael Trotman, have called on the PPP to withdraw the motion.
