President cannot assent to Bills that breach constitutional provisions - Opposition’s decisions in Parliament are not binding on Executive
Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) Dr. Roger Luncheon at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President today reaffirmed that mere approvals and resolutions of the Parliament cannot, and would not suffice for law making in essence, and are not automatically binding on the Executive.
He was at the time, speaking in reference to the Local Government (Amendment) Bill, from which President Donald Ramotar has withheld his assent.
“The Opposition is claiming that those decisions arrived at by the House are binding on the Executive….Bills that have secured parliamentary approval must have the President’s assent to become law,” he reminded.
The combined parliamentary Opposition, made an amendment to the bill by inserting the Local Government Commission wherever the Minister was mentioned in the legislation. These amendments were passed with a majority vote.
“Wherever the Minister was mentioned to exercise an authority and a power, the Opposition replaced the Minister with the Local Government Commission,” Dr. Luncheon said.
He noted however, that the Opposition failed to realise that the Local Government Commission was a creation of the Constitution in which its (the Commission) powers are expressly outlined.
“This resort of the Opposition to create new powers in the context of their amendment of the Local Government Bill flew in the face of that reality. The Local Government Commission did not, by constitutional provisions, have those powers that the Opposition sought to confer,” the HPS emphasised.
This essentially, was the basis for the President’s non-assent for the Bill. The requisite correspondence has been sent to the Speaker of the National Assembly, addressing the President’s resolve not to resubmit this Bill for the House’s reconsideration.
The President however, assented to the other three pieces of local government legislation. These include: Fiscal Transfers Bill 2012, Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill and the Local Government Commission Bill.
