The Speaker of the National Assembly, on Monday, acknowledged a motion of no-confidence brought against him by members of the Opposition explaining that it would go through the “regular procedure.”
Speaker Manzoor Nadir said “…today the Clerk received 2 motions from the honourable Chief Whip of the Opposition. One a no-confidence motion in the Speaker of the National Assembly (and) that motion will go through the regular procedures.”
The motion was submitted to the Clerk of the National Assembly Sunday evening in the names of Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon and Chief Whip Christopher Jones.
During an interview with this newspaper on Monday, Jones said that the motion stemmed from the Speaker’s consistent failure to recognize the Opposition along with his indifference when it comes to the application of the rules.
“There were instances when we had the Leader of the Opposition on the floor and the Speaker would ignore him or tell him to sit down it is not his turn to speak. We had David (Patterson) submitting a motion since October last year and only today (Monday, January 24, 2022) it is on the order paper to be debated. We had 2 petitions that the Speaker disallowed and many other instances so we have lost all confidence in his ability to be impartial,” Jones said.
The Opposition, in its motion, explained that during the second reading of the controversial Natural Resource Fund Bill on December 29, 2021, before and after Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh started to speak, they objected to the bill being read a second time and also stood to get Nadir’s attention. However, they are contending that the Speaker failed to acknowledge their protest and proceeded with the debate on the bill.
“AND WHEREAS thereafter Members of the Opposition left their places and entered into the well of the Assembly and began making loud noises of protest to obstruct and prevent the purported debate from proceeding, and further, Members of the Government also left their seats and entered into the well of the Assembly to ostensibly encourage the Minister of Finance to proceed.
“AND WHEREAS a scene of chaos erupted in the National Assembly whereby there was noise and all members were on their feet and the Speaker inexplicably, purported to allow the debate to proceed whereby Members of the Opposition were compelled to remove the mace from the dais; believing that this would halt all proceedings,” the motion read.
The motion further argues that Nadir failed to restore order in the House and just allowed the debate to continue amid the chaos. It added that the vote was not properly taken since the mace was out of the Chamber and MPs out of their seats.
“WHEREAS by his actions, both past and on December 29, 2022, the Speaker has demonstrated partiality and brought the Office of the Speaker into disrepute and public ridicule and the National Assembly into public odium, as from the inception of his tenure, the Speaker has routinely shown bias against the Opposition and its Members by, inter alia, refusing to allow debates on matters of an urgent, definite and public nature, such as the Sars-Covid 19 global pandemic; the nation-wide floods of 2021; striking down, refusing debate and unjustly amending opposition questions and motions; failing to protect Opposition Members, especially female Members, from the insults, invectives and abuses of Members of the Government side; failing and refusing to offer protection to a Member of the Opposition who was physically assaulted by a Government Minister and ordering the “lock out” of elected Members of the National Assembly from the Chamber, just to name a few,” it added.
Jones told Stabroek News that it is now unclear when and how the Speaker would proceed with the motion of no confidence against him. However, he did express concerns about whether the motion would even make it on to the order paper for debate and subsequent vote.
“We had two similar motions of no confidence against Robeson Benn the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Health Frank Anthony but we have not heard anything about those,” Jones added.
