MINISTER of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, has said that the government has received word of purported plans by the Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), to disrupt today’s sitting of the National Assembly.

“As we prepare for the sitting, we have received information that the Opposition, APNU+AFC, intends to be disruptive and try to undermine the workings of the Nation Assembly, as they did in December [last year] and in January,” Minister Teixeira said in a recording which was posted on the People’s Progressive Party/Civic’s (PPP/C)’s official Facebook page.

She went on to say: “We are prepared and expect that they will try to disrupt the sitting to ensure they are able to delay the Privilege Committee’s report from being heard on the agenda and being voted on….”
Owing to their involvement in desecrating the Speaker’s Mace in December 2021, eight members of parliament (MPs) from the APNU+AFC are likely to face suspension, according to a media report referencing the Privileges Committee’s investigation.

The Coalition MPs named in the incident are Opposition Chief Whip, Christopher Jones, Sherod Duncan, Natasha Singh-Lewis, Annette Ferguson, Vinceroy Jordan, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, Ganesh Mahipaul and Maureen Philadelphia.

The government anticipates that the Opposition will do everything within its power to disrupt today’s sitting so that the likely suspensions would not be instituted.
“Tomorrow [today] we are expecting them – that is the information we received, that they will do everything to try to disrupt as they [did] in December… this also indicates the kind of members of parliament we have, who do not intend to obey the laws and standing orders of the National Assembly and to behave in a manner that is totally undemocratic, and intend to bully their way and dominate their way through the national assembly.
“And this will not be accepted just like it wasn’t accepted in the elections when they tried to bully and get their way to stay in government despite the votes of the people showing they lost,” Minister Teixeira said.