THE Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Raphael Trotman, has no power to fix a date for the next sitting of the House, according to the Assembly’s Clerk, Mr. Sherlock Isaacs.

In an extensive statement made public on Tuesday, he explained that if a date had been fixed at the last sitting before the parliamentary recess, only then Mr. Trotman could have fixed a date for the next sitting.

However, Alliance For Change (AFC) leader, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan, contends that Mr. Trotman, also an AFC executive, does have the authority to call a sitting of the House.
“We differ vastly from what the Clerk has said. Mr. Trotman can call a sitting, as indicated by Mr. Ralph Ramkarran (former House Speaker),” he said, referring to an article penned by the former Speaker, in which is reasoned that Mr. Trotman could call a sitting.
Isaacs, in his statement on Tuesday, said, “On October 14, 2014, I was asked by Speaker Trotman whether he has the power, in accordance with the Standing Orders, to convene the next Sitting of the National Assembly.
“I advised the Speaker that, in my opinion, the answer is “no” and that he can only fix a date for a Sitting when the Assembly is adjourned to a specified date. Standing Order No. 8(2) is clear. If a date was fixed at the last sitting before the Parliamentary recess, only then Mr. Trotman could have fixed a date for the next sitting.
“When matters are not provided for in our Rules, we refer to practice and precedents. The practice is that Sittings are requested by the Government. In the Parliament of Guyana we have two precedents, one involving Mr. Frank A. Narain, C.C.H., former Clerk of the National Assembly and the other involving Mr. Elwyn Viapree, former Clerk of the Legislature. In Mr. Viapree’s case, on 8th June, 1963, he was given the following instructions by Speaker Rahman B. Gajraj.”
In both cases, the decision was the same, if a date had been fixed at the last sitting before the parliamentary recess, only then Mr. Trotman could have fixed a date for the next sitting.
Numerous attempts to contact the General-Secretary of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Mr. Joseph Harmon, for a comment on the coalition’s response to the Clerk’s position were futile.
Additionally, the Government of Guyana maintains that the date for the next sitting of the National Assembly is exclusively its decision, even as the AFC is pressing for a date to be set.
The National Assembly came out of recess on October 10 and the “hot-button” issue up for consideration is the AFC-sponsored no-confidence motion against the current Administration.
The first page of the Motion reads: “Be it resolved that this National Assembly has no confidence in the Government.” It was seconded by AFC Executive Member and Member of Parliament (MP) Mrs. Cathy Hughes.
As stated in Section 106 (6) of the Constitution: “The Cabinet and President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of the majority of all Members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
This is made even clearer in Section 106 (7), which states: “Notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office, and shall hold an election within three months or such longer period as the National Assembly shall, by resolution supported by no less than two-thirds of all elected members of the National Assembly, (approve); and shall resign after a new President takes the oath of office following the election.”
The AFC has been pressing for a sitting either on Wednesday, October 22, which is now passed, or on Friday, October 24.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Management Committee has agreed to let the party Whips, APNU’s Amna Ally and the Government’s Gail Teixeira, hold discussions to settle on a date.
Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Sherlock Isaacs, in an invited comment yesterday, said, since the last meeting of the Committee, last Wednesday, there has been no decision from the two Whips.
“The two Whips met last week and they were asked to work out a date, but since then the Parliament Office has not received word on a possible date,” he said.
Prior to the House going into recess on August 10, there had been no sitting of the house since the first week in July.