WITH the brouhaha still escalating over the recent ruling made by Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, Clerk of Parliament Sherlock Isaacs has confirmed that it can be challenged through a ‘substantive motion’ in the House.
Such a substantive motion, according to Isaacs, will have to be submitted in accordance with the Parliamentary Standing Orders, and will have to secure a majority vote before any of its resolutions challenging the ruling ‘can be made effective.’
This will also require a mandatory 12 days’ notice, but will be compounded by the fact that the House is gearing to engage the national expenditures for 2013.
“We will abstain or will vote against it,” according to leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan.
While the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) holds the single largest block of votes in the National Assembly, the AFC commands the swing-votes, and in the past, has effectively blocked APNU requests.
The AFC leader, in a brief interview with this publication,maintains that it is an independent party and adds that while it supports a debate on the matter, so that all views can be fully ventilated, should it be a case where there will be an attempt to overturn the ruling, the AFC will block it.
Ramjattan reaffirmed that the party will be respecting Trotman’s ruling even as A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) has outrightly rejected it and questioned its ”legal soundness.”
The AFC leader is of the adamant view that it is “time to move on….we will respect the ruling.”
Trotman, in his ruling which was handed down this past week, and which is yet to be formally presented to the House, had indicated that, “The matter of whether Minister Clement Rohee can be restrained from speaking in his ministerial capacity, by the National Assembly, is really a simple one…We have made it complex.”
Trotman, himself an Executive Member of the AFC, former party leader and presidential candidate, in the ruling ‘ungagging’ the Minister of Home Affairs, had stated that a gag on Rohee is tantamount to effecting a gag on the Executive.
Trotman says that in June last year, he had given a ruling about the right of the executive branch to seek legislative approval to finance its budget in instances where the National Assembly had previously refused its approval.
“I ruled that the Executive must have the unhindered right to approach the National Assembly as often as it desires so to do, and likewise, the National Assembly has a constitutional duty to open the door and listen to the Executive’s petition to approve such funding…The National Assembly may say no, or yes, with, or without amendments, but cannot prevent the Executive’s request.”
It is in this light that Trotman reminds that all executive power is vested in the President and a person designated by him as a “Minister” is for all intents and purposes, his “representative.”
APNU Leader Brigadier (rtd), David Granger had, following the July 18 killings in Linden, moved a vote of no confidence against Rohee, whose ministerial portfolio includes national security.
Rohee has since denied any involvement in the Linden fiasco, a position which is expected to be vindicated with the release of the findings of the Commission of Inquiry.
