– offers apology to the minister following Carrido-Lowe’s request for him to give up Parliamentary seat
The Executive of The United Force (TUF) has cleared the air on reports that its Member of Parliament, Minister of Labour Manzoor Nadir, had been asked to give up his seat in the National Assembly. The Kaieteur News of August 24, 2011 reported that less than a month after stepping down as leader of TUF, Manzoor Nadir was being asked by Presidential Candidate of his party, Valerie Garrido-Lowe to give up his seat in the National Assembly.

According to the Kaieteur News article, Garrido-Lowe sent a letter to Nadir last Friday calling for him to relinquish his seat with immediate effect. According to the article, the letter stated that, “After careful consideration, the Executive of The United Force came to a decision that the Party’s seat in the National Assembly which you are currently occupying is not being utilized to its full potential and is, therefore, requesting that you relinquish this seat with immediate effect.”

Garrido-Lowe stated, “The United Force needs to have its presence felt in the highest decision making body of our country as it is entitled to and also to demonstrate our independence to the Guyanese Electorate…As an experienced politician and a conscientious human being, as you have shown you are when you stepped down from The United Force’s leadership position on May 29, 2011, I sincerely hope that you would comply with this very reasonable request so that The United Force could continue to process a positive way forward.”

However, in a letter to the Minister yesterday, Chairman of the TUF Ismail Muhammad apologized to Mr. Nadir.

Muhammad’s letter read:  “It is with grave concern that I have learnt that our Leader has sent you a letter calling on you to resign from your seat in Parliament and even with greater concern that that letter says that this decision was taken by the Executive of the Party.”

“As Chairman of the Party I assure you that the Executive and Members recognize you as the legal representative for The United Force in Parliament and we commend you for the work you have done in Parliament during the last four terms as our Parliamentary representative,” Muhammad said.

“I wish to apologise to you for any embarrassment that this unilateral decision by the Leader (Garrido-Lowe) may have caused. As Chairman of the Party, I can assure you that no meeting was ever called to discuss your resignation from Parliament,” Muhammad said.

The Chairman of TUF also stated in his letter to the Minister that the last meeting of the Executive of the Party was on July 8, 2011. He said that a meeting was to have been convened on August 20, 2011 “and I had to nullify that meeting because it was never convened by me and I never prepared the agenda.”

“I have since been in contact with Party Executives from throughout the country and they have asked to append their names to this letter of apology to you. They were never consulted and are not in support of Ms. Valerie Garrido-Lowe in this matter of your resignation from Parliament,” said the Chairman of TUF.

The names appended to the letter were Dennis Lee – Treasurer; Murtland Williams – Executive Member; Lillian Allen – Executive Member; Rita Freeman – Executive Member; Naim Gafoor – Executive Member; and June Bourne – Executive Member.