The Leader of the Opposition Joseph Harmon today submitted a Motion of No Confidence against the Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir. In an additional Motion Harmon called for sanctions for Government member in the House for “unparliamentary conduct”. Harmon said that Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Opposition benches will not take lightly to the threats of the installed regime’s Chief Whip Gail Teixeira carried in an article recently, “Opposition MPs likely to be disciplined for attack on mace on Monday; police could get involved”.
The Leader said after witnessing the actions of the Speaker during the Sitting of the National Assembly on December 29th, 2021, where the infamous Natural Resource Fund Bill was passed, the Parliamentary Opposition” determined that, “they were the last line of defense against an authoritarian regime who were salivating about the idea of having complete control of the revenue from our oil resources that is the patrimony of all Guyanese.”
In denouncing the actions of the Speaker and the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) on the occasion Harmon stated, “The APNU+AFC Coalition wishes to remind the Speaker, the PPPC Regime and Guyanese generally that the Natural Resource Fund Bill, no. 20 0f 2021 was not successfully passed. Further, we maintain that the mace which was used in place of the original one, was a replica. We also maintain that at the time of members casting their votes, many members on the Government side were not in their seats. They were standing!”
The Leader of the Opposition noted that all right thinking members of society rejected the legislation and its passage. Harmon said, “The statements made by the Article 13 group, The Georgetown Chambers of Commerce, The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC), Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc (TIGI) and African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) among others who agitated in various ways that “any change to the existing Natural Resource Fund Act 2019 “must be fully ventilated in the public domain with public consultations across Guyana seeking the input of all Guyanese”.
He also stated, “The actions by numerous Government Members of Parliament as caught on camera on December 29, 2021 would require any impartial Speaker to discipline also the Members of the government whose behavior were deemed to be unparliamentary.” Harmon pointed out, “That the Honorable Gail Texeira would go to the media days before a sitting of the National Assembly to inform the public that it is the intention of the PPP to sanction Opposition Members of Parliament further highlight the APNU+AFC’s position that the Speaker of the National Assembly is not in control of Parliament”.
The Leader of the Opposition said he has sent to the Clerk of the National Assembly two motions. The first motion indicating our Loss of Confidence in Mr. Manzoor Nadir as Speaker of the National Assembly and the second requesting that Members on the Government benches of the House of the National Assembly be sanctioned for their unparliamentary conduct in the assembly during the debate on the Natural Resource Fund Bill on the 29th Dec 2021.
