Gov't to challenge Opposition committee vote in court

From Demerara Waves

Written by Kwesi Isles    Wednesday, 07 March 2012 15:31

The government is heading to court to challenge the constitutionality of an opposition move in parliament which has left it with less committee representation than it believes it deserves.

At his weekly post-Cabinet news briefing on Wednesday Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon said they will be addressing the matter at the parliamentary and judicial levels.

“Motions have been drafted and I suspect have already been presented at the level of parliament questioning those decisions and requesting the House to declare them null and void. The governing party is approaching the constitutional court to have those same remedies provided,” he said.

Contacted afterward AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan said that it was well within the ambit of the parliament to decide on the composition of the committees.

“Judges ought not to be deciding on matters in the legislative since the constitution leaves the matter up to the members of parliament,” he stated.

According to Ramjattan, if it is a case that they are in breach of the constitution then he is glad that the government is heading to court and not “terrorising” the opposition like they are doing with the Guyana Cricket Board.  

AFC Executive member, Moses Nagamootoo expected the government to have its "merry way" in court unless it could prove that parliament's vote has violated the constitution or other law. "We will welcome any challenge that he (Luncheon) may wish to raise in and outside of the courts on this issue."

Nagamootoo accused the PPPC of using the court to play delaying tactics in holding up the work of the committees. "The fact is that do so is, I believe, a filibuster is to prevent the committes from being formed, to prevent the committees from working, and to sabotage what could have been a new and exciting journey working parliamentary democracy in Guyana," he said.

The issue at hand is the AFC and APNU on February 10 voting to change the membership of the committees from 10 representatives to nine with the PPP/C and APNU having four each and the AFC one. The ruling party which has the most seats in the House but one less than the combined opposition was in favour of 10 representatives per committee with it having five, the APNU four and the AFC one.

But the opposition MPs said the government’s proposal would lead to gridlock and they used their one seat majority to defeat the PPP/C motion and ruled that the Committee of Selection would have nine members.

On Wednesday Dr. Luncheon said the opposition’s imposition violates the “principle of proportionality of parties” and their seating in parliament and in committees of parliament.

According to Luncheon, the collaboration between the parliamentary opposition parties was leading o grossly unprincipled actions. He added that it was a betrayal of parliamentary norms and an abuse of constitutional provisions.”

At the last sitting the PPP/C government had argued that it should have the largest representation on the committees since it won the most votes at the November 28 polls.

“Whether there is a combined opposition or not is of no relevance now, the issue is the strength of each party and there is not a minority on the government side. It is incongruous to think of a party that gets 49.230 percent of the votes having the same number of seats in a committee, four, as the party that got 40 percent of the votes (APNU) and therefore one has to deal with balance and fairness,” government MP Gail Teixeira had argued.

The combined opposition parties had also maintained their position on the nine-member composition of the other committees when the Committee of Selection met recently and Dr. Luncheon said the Cabinet is “unwilling to accept the dispensation and was inclined to confront the wrongdoings.”