APNU-AFC Opposition is declaring that the Natural Resource Fund Bill(NRF) was illegally passed in the National Assembly because the Mace was not in place and there was no opposition member within their seat.
The opposition is now seeking legal action against the passing of the bill. The Government of Guyana has made it clear that the court will not find favour in the matter.
Speaking at a press conference hosted by the Government, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, said that the Parliament has to deal with its own issues relating to the bill.
Ms. Teixeira explained that parliament represents one of the three executive powers and one which cannot be interfered with by each other to affect its function.
“A bill has been passed. Mr. Harmon has some choices; he can go to the court; the Judiciary will most likely say that is a parliament matter. Go back to the constitution, the constitution deals with how parliament regulates itself. The parliament regulates itself, not the Judiciary, not the executive,” said Teixeira.
Ms. Teixeira said that history will repeat itself if the Opposition decides to go the court and try to seek recourse simply because of the parliament’s decision. It cannot be dictated to by the judicial arm.
On Wednesday night, the NRF Bill was passed as the Opposition mounted its disapproval of the bill by staging a protest.
During the said protest, Opposition Members with placards and whistles, the chant of “no thieving bill must pass” sounded throughout the parliament as Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh was ready to take the bill to the floor.
The Mace that is known as the most significant symbol in parliament, and which signals the parliament to order was grabbed by an Opposition Member.
At that moment several Government members were present while the Opposition would be left parliament leaving the debate to continue in the house without the input of the Opposition in debate.
Later, the Opposition declared that the bill was not passed correctly since the Mace was not in place and full parliament was not in session. This is prompting the move to the court.
That move was rejected by Mr. Teixeira, who said that now that the bill is passed, the Opposition can only now bring a bill to the Assembly.
“There no other recourse except the Opposition could bring its own bill. If Harmon wants to bring a new Bill he has a right as a member of parliament. You can bring a private members bill. If he thinks there are deficiencies in this bill he can also, as a member of parliament, wait a while and pose some amendments to the act.”
She said that it might not happen under this Government but it may happen sometime in the future.
