Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira believes the opposition’s intention to boycott the next sitting of the Parliament is a form of intimidation.
But Minister Teixeira said the government remains unintimidated, and this will not affect the agenda for the scheduled sitting.
During a rally held on Tuesday evening at Burnham Court, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton announced that the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Chance (APNU+AFC) opposition would be boycotting the next sitting of the National Assembly slated for August 8.
This move comes in wake of the suspension of eight APNU+AFC Members of Parliament for ‘disorderly conduct and collective vulgarity’ during a sitting on December 29, 2021.
In light of this development, Minister Teixeira said this would not affect the agenda of the sitting in any way.
“I think that’s all part of their plan to threaten, to intimidate, and to bully their way as well as to try to stymie the work of the parliament, which they can’t do, not on the issues we’re dealing with,” Minister Teixeira expressed.
When asked whether the government feels intimidated by this move, Minister Teixeira said, “Of course not. We have our programmes, we have our plans, and the people of Guyana are benefitting, and they want us to continue on this process of transformation that they are seeing every day in front of them.”
The Parliamentary Affairs Minister added, “The opposition made up of the APNU+AFC are desperate because people are not responding to them, people want to get on with their lives, they want to improve the quality of their lives, they want to improve the quality of their lives, and they go ahead doing their business.”
The eight Opposition MPs suspended are Annette Ferguson, Christopher Jones, Ganesh Mahipaul, Vinceroy Jordan, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, Sherod Duncan, Maureen Philadelphia, and Natasha Singh-Lewis.
Sarabo-Halley, Jordan, Ferguson, and Philadelphia were suspended for six consecutive sittings of the National Assembly, while Mahipaul, Duncan, Jones, and Singh-Lewis were suspended for four consecutive sittings of the National Assembly.
The eight Parliamentarians have already moved to the High Court, seeking to nullify the suspension.
