parliament matters. You have no damn authority over the legislature to modify bills. They should take your ass to court no less than you are wont to do to defend autocratic domains of the PPP. Your pitiful behind are why we need a revamping of our constitution. Who the hell are you to modify the authority of the nations legislature...what balls!

President’s assent to Bills… Attorney General says he is following his predecessors

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, in responding to opposition statements which questioned his position with regards to Bills passed in the National Assembly, yesterday said that the role of the (AG) in the process is one which is hallowed in time and which is inherited.
Two leading members of the opposition had criticized the public utterances of the attorney general who had suggested that he first has to clean up Bills that are passed in the House before they are sent to the President for assent.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) frontbencher Deborah Backer had described the AG as a mere “transmitting officer” once Bills are passed in the National Assembly.

Leader of the Alliance for Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan, had stated that the Attorney General is trying to “fluff up” his authority, since he should not touch any Bills once they are passed in the House.
But the Attorney General in an invited comment yesterday told Kaieteur News that the criticisms which are leveled against the sacrosanct process are simply unlearned.
“The Attorney Generals before me including Dr. Fenton Ramsahoye, Dr. Mohamed Shahabudeen, Keith Massiah, Bernard DeSantos SC, among others have all followed the same process and there must be some vindication of its utility and constitutionality,” Nandlall said.

In a previous letter to the Editor, Nandlall stated that all Bills passed by the House are first sent to the Chambers of the Attorney General by the Clerk of the National Assembly, “firstly to be examined by the Chief Parliamentary Counsel and then by the Attorney General who issues an Assent Certificate advising His Excellency, the President, that he may properly assent to the Bill, provided, of course, that in the opinion of the Attorney General, the Bill is in order.”

“That is crazy,” Backer had said of the Attorney General’s interpretation of his role. She said that the functions of the Attorney General are mainly administrative and there is no constitutional requirement for the Attorney General to “tidy up” anything.
She said that if legislation is passed in the House, it is the administrative duty of the Attorney General whether he chooses to “use carriage or fax” to ensure that the Bill as passed in the House, without any changes or amendments, goes to the President. It is up to the President to assent or withhold his assent, she stated.

Backer said any tidying up, or any amendments, are the functions of the National Assembly and not the Attorney General, as he has suggested. She said that the Attorney General cannot seek to jump ahead of his responsibilities and tamper with Bills passed in the House. Ramjattan shared the same view, saying that the function of the Attorney General is merely of an administrative nature once Bills are passed.

As such, he said that for the Attorney General to say he has to decide if the Bill is “in order” and use that as an excuse to delay or not send Bills for the President is highly out of order. “Nandlall is only trying to big up himself and to make himself look more important than he is not,” Ramjattan said.
For Ramjattan, Nandlall’s interpretation of his function makes it seem that Bills passed in the House need two assents, “the assent of Nandlall and the assent of the President. That is nonsense.” It was Attorney and Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram who picked up Nandlall on his “proclivity for misunderstandings and misrepresentations… (and) his frequent pronouncements show extremely poor acquaintance, and at times no acquaintance, with the finer points of the Constitution.”
Nandlall was reported in the press as saying that Bills passed in the House have not reached his chambers for “his inputs.”