…insists he can’t be unelected
…former speaker says PPP move incorrect

THE opposition has written Speaker of the House, Dr. Barton Scotland requesting that Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who is performing duties of President, be excluded from the National Assembly during consideration of estimates for Budget 2019.

According to the letter signed by Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira in the 8th, 9th and 10th Parliaments in accordance with Articles 96 (1) and 178 (1) and (4) of the Constitution of Guyana, when then Prime Minister Samuel Hinds was carrying out “the functions of office of the President” who was overseas, he was not allowed to attend a sitting or a committee meeting of the National Assembly.

The opposition also said records to this effect can be found in the archives of the Parliament Office and besides, there was no differing view on this matter during the tenure of former Speakers Ralph Ramkarran or Raphael Trotman.
In the 11th Parliament, the prime minister has been attending sittings of the National Assembly, committee meetings and votes while performing duties of President when the President was out of the jurisdiction.

The opposition believes that these acts by the prime minister are in contravention of the law. “As you are aware, Mr. Speaker, Article 103 (1) of the Constitution provides: ‘The Prime Minister and every other Vice President shall be a Minister of the Government of Guyana.’ Article 106 (1) reinforces this further by providing that ‘ there shall be a Cabinet for Guyana, which shall consist of the President, the Prime Minister, the Vice-Presidents, and such other Ministers as may be appointed to it by the President.’ Article 96 (1) of the Constitution provides: ‘Whenever the President is absent from Guyana or considers it desirable to do so by reason of illness or any other cause he or she may, by direction in writing authorise any member of Cabinet, being an elected member of the National Assembly, to perform such functions of office of the President as he may specify and the person so authorised shall perform those functions until his authority is revoked by the President or until the functions are resumed by the President.”

The prime minister is an elected member of the National Assembly and a member of Cabinet. Therefore, he qualifies to have been appointed by the President, to perform the functions of office of President and in fact, has been appointed on many occasions to do so in keeping with this article.

Article 178 (4) of the Constitution then unambiguously reads: ‘During any period when a minister is performing the functions of the office of the President under article 96 or 179 or has assumed the office under the provisio to article 95(1), his seat in the National Assembly shall be regarded as vacant … At the expiration of the period… the seat shall thereupon be resumed by the Minister’. The language of Article 178 (4) is unequivocal. Once a minister, (who must be an elected member of the National Assembly) of the Cabinet is appointed to perform the functions of the office of President, then that minister’s seat in the National Assembly ‘shall be regarded as vacant’,” Teixeira said in the letter.

CONSTITUTION IS CLEAR
The opposition contended that the framers of the Constitution also went to great length in creating a clear divide between the executive and the legislature, between the President and the National Assembly. As such, the opposition said while performing the office of President, the prime minister’s presence in the National Assembly is a constitutional violation.

“We are, therefore, formally bringing to your attention that these constitutional provisions are once again being violated and call upon you to uphold the Constitution as was done by your predecessors. Failure to uphold the Constitution will expose the entire consideration of National Estimates for the 2019 Budget and any other matters before the House during this period to be infected by the germ of unconstitutionality and thereby making it liable to be set aside by a Court of competent jurisdiction, should there be a resort to such an option,” Teixeira said.

PRIME MINISTER IS CORRECT
Former Speaker of the National Assembly and Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran has however disagreed with Jagdeo. Asked for his comments on the matter on Sunday, Ramkarran, a former PPP executive said: “The prime minister is correct; it is only if a minister is appointed to perform the functions of the President that the minister has to vacate his parliamentary seat while he is performing the functions of the President. “The article in the Constitution requires a minister, if appointed, to vacate his seat. It does not require the prime minister, if similarly appointed, to do so.”

Minister Nagamootoo himself has accused Jagdeo of attempting to sow seeds of discord among the citizenry in an attempt to block passage of the government’s $300.7B budget.
“I want to put that in context for the Guyanese people to know that the deviousness is what we see playing out; that they’re trying to first divide members of this government and set us up against each other; and then when you believe, as a throwback, as a fallback, you’re now asking for the removal from the House of the prime minister,” he said.

“Because, the intention is to first defeat the $300.7B Budget; to lock down the government; to create a constitutional crisis; and to breathe disaffection and rebellion among the people of this country. “It is diabolical, and it has to be met squarely. It has to be answered; it has to be defeated,” the prime minister, who is also leader of the House told the National Assembly late Friday.

He further explained that the Constitution provides for the prime minister to be leader of government business in the House, first vice-president and principal adviser to the president.

He said, too, that the president, in or out of Guyana, could authorise the prime minister to carry out “certain functions”, which could be “any function.”
“The prime minister, performing any functions, one or more, has never been invited to vacate his membership of the National Assembly.

The Constitution provides that the president is elected, and once elected, he always remains the president until he is un-elected. “The prime minister is an elected member of the National Assembly, and I cannot ipso facto un-elect myself. In fact, I cannot act on bad advice to un-elect myself,” Minister Nagamootoo was quoted by Demerarawaves as saying.