Dear Editor,
Each time there is a sitting of the National Assembly, I would habitually take a walk to Demico House across the street, and to parts of Stabroek Market to interact with vendors and labourers during the lunch-break. I do this because I need to know how decisions we make in Parliament affect the lives of ordinary Guyanese. Very often they would comment that ministers of government are so aloof, they would never do what I’m doing until they’re campaigning for votes.
This was evident when the entire Cabinet descended upon the Stabroek Market square, inviting vendors to “meet and greet your minister” on Christmas Eve after they were earlier declared persona non grata.
But they were scared from before. On the day of the No-confidence Motion, they were expecting thousands of supporters to amass in front of Parliament building, but only managed to scrape the barrel down to a disappointing hardcore group.
Now that this elitist group of APNU+AFC Ministers need people, they’re now shamelessly asking them to come out in defence of the government, the same government that neglected them for three and a half years.
Now we see Ministers dancing and partying with DJs when not too long ago, these same DJs were being hounded and forced to shut down the music by the 2:00 am curfew.
The point has already been made by former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, other prominent lawyers and the Guyana Bar Association on the validity of the No-confidence Motion as it relates to Nigel Hughes’ fuzzy maths.
I will only ask if those who now question the passage of this Motion would have objected and demanded that government needed 34 votes to defeat the Motion had all 33 members of government voted against it. I guarantee, this would never have happened, and Nigel Hughes would not have come up with his jumbie equation to stir-up trouble.
Immediately following the fall of the Coalition Government, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo held a Press Conference in which he admitted that the Opposition’s Motion “was approved by a majority of all the elected members of the House.” This admission of defeat was echoed by President Granger and several Cabinet Ministers.
Editor, you may recall that in 2014 Carl Greenidge said in an interview, that “because a no-confidence vote in the government is a major issue over the performance of the government, the behaviour of the government and the breaking of the law by the government, it needs to be followed by the resignation of the government and the calling of national elections.” But I wonder if he shares the same view now.
Despite the previous admission that the government has fallen, we’re now being told that Cabinet is looking at the legal implications, and is likely to go to court to seek a reversal of the no-confidence vote taken in favour of the Parliamentary Opposition. The audacity of this government still having Cabinet meetings, flies in the face of Article 106 (6) of our Constitution which explicitly directs the entire Cabinet to resign.
Article 106 (6) of our Constitution is unambiguous. It clearly states that “The Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.” This government has fallen, the President, the Cabinet and rest of Ministers must resign now! And since the APNU+AFC are so convinced that they have done great things for Guyana and its people, they should have no problem calling new elections now.
Editor, I have listened carefully to the venomous statements made by PNCR Central Executive Member, Aubrey Norton who chaired a low-level press conference a few days ago. Clutching at straws, he accused former AFC Parliamentarian Charrandas Persaud of taking a bribe from Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP for voting his conscience. This is so ludicrous, I challenge anyone to produce hard evidence. From his interview with the press Charrandas was asked if he was paid by the PPP to which he replied that he was paid by Parliament Office for traveling expense as other MPs are entitled to.
The APNU+AFC is now desperate and scared of the outcome. They’ve grown so accustomed to the good life, they can’t simply return to living an ordinary life now.
Going to court will not help them either. The Guyana Bar Association has already issued a statement supporting the validity of the Motion which reads in part, “The Bar Council rejects as erroneous such contentions that the motion was not properly passed or that the vote is, for any reason, invalid”. But as we have seen before, government is again shamelessly exercising its power, trampling on the Constitution to hang on to power.
It is reported that if government fails to get the Speaker of the National Assembly to respond favourably to its concerns about the validity of the no-confidence motion against it, it will take the matter to court. But what is there for the Speaker to review? Nothing new has come up to compel the Speaker to reverse his decision, and the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr Sherlock Isaacs has already confirmed the result of our Motion in writing. Of course, they’re hoping that the judiciary will save them. The judiciary has an obligation to uphold the Constitution of Guyana at all times. I expect it will continue to do so.
I expect this caretaker government to engage in routine expenditure only. No new contracts to be awarded, no cutting of cheques for use in the new year, and certainly, all fiscal accounts must be closed by December 31, 2018 the latest. You’re been forewarned!
Yours faithfully,
Harry Gill
PPP/C Member of Parliament
