President issues Parliamentary opening proclamation

Amidst uncertainty about who will be named Speaker, President Donald Ramotar announced Monday night that the National Assembly will be convened on Thursday. In a release, the Office of the President said “His Excellency, Donald Ramotar, President of Guyana, today issued the proclamation for the convening of Parliament on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 14:00h in the Parliament Chambers”. The proclamation, OP said, was issued in pursuance of Article 69 (1) of the Constitution.
When the National Assembly convenes on Thursday it would be the first time since 1992 that the opposition would be controlling the 65-seat legislature. The combination of the A Partnership For National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) edged out the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic by one seat at the recently-held general and regional elections. The APNU won 26 seats and the AFC seven to the PPP/C’s 32. As such, the opposition will likely use their majority to pick a Speaker of the House, a decision they had been squabbling over since the election results were announced.
Up to late last week, APNU had proposed a rotation of the speakership, with that party holding the position for the first term. APNU’s pick is Deborah Backer, while AFC has nominated Moses Nagamootoo. On Sunday, PPP/C said the rotating the speakership is impractical.
PPP member Joseph Hamilton told a NCN panel discussion the revolving Speaker proposal is impractical as the first Speaker must tender a resignation when his/her tenure is up and that the successor can only be installed through the process of an election. In this regard, he said it is unclear whether the length of the term served by the Speaker will be brought to the Parliament through a resolution or vote for ratification, and that if it is that the opposition agrees to a term of one year for each Speaker, it would imply that within five years, there would be four rotations, which would mean four elections.
For this reason, Hamilton said he is in favour of a discourse at a tripartite level which he is confident would bring a resolution. Presidential advisor on governance, Gail Teixeira concurred, noting that the duration of each rotating Speaker is unclear. The business of the National Assembly, she believes, will be stymied as a result.
“APNU and AFC in their haste to try to be very counterproductive are really going to harm any effort of really trying to move the business of this country forward,” Teixeira said.
Hamilton said too that indecisiveness in the opposition camp in selecting a Speaker has resulted in the business of the nation being put on hold. “There is definitiveness on this matter; the Parliament has to be convened. The nation cannot forever wait on Roopnaraine and Ramjattan and Granger and Trotman and their antics.”
Both shared the view that the Speaker is a person who demonstrates impartiality in his pronouncements and demeanour, and whose function is to ensure that the government’s legislative agenda is carried out.
“He is not there to block the government but he is there to be fair… give the opposition and everybody a fair hearing and to make rulings that are fair,” Teixeira said, using the incumbent speaker Ralph Ramkarran as a model example.