Local gov't bills "dropped"....
as opposition stun Ramotar & Jagdeo Govt.....
by calling on them to put their vote where their mouth is.....
All Guyanese and Diplomatic community see...
Ramotar Dishonesty and fear of even local govt elections.
- Thursday, 18 July 2013 16:37
Parliamentarians gather during the suspension.
At the start of consideration of government business APNUβs Basil Williams moved to bring the four bills up to the top of the Order Paper, displacing the Hydro-electric Power (Amendment) Bill 2013 and a motion seeking to raise the government guarantee of loans from GUY$1B to GUY$150B.
Both are integral to the Amaila Hydropower Project and the government has been calling on the opposition to support the moves.
The government voted against the move to reshuffle the Order Paper but opposition prevailed 32 β 31 when the vote was called.
However, when Speaker Raphael Trotman called on Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud to proceed with the debate on the first bill there was silence from the government benches.
The House was then suspended for about 30 minutes for Trotman to meet with the Party Whips and upon resumption he indicated that he could not order the minister to proceed. Clerk of the Assembly Sherlock Isaacs, in following the procedure, again called on the minister to read the bill and the silence continued.
Trotman then indicated that the bill would be dropped from the Order Paper until a date was set. Nothing changed when the Clerk called on Persaud to read the other three bills and they too were dropped.
Government MP Gail Teixeira then rose and indicated that they were prepared to debate the bills on Friday. However, a decision on that is still pending since Hinds will move the date for the next sitting at the end of Thursdayβs session which could be countered by the opposition with its one seat majority.
The Fiscal Transfers Bill 2012; the Municipal and District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2012; the Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2012; and the Local Government Commission Bill were before the House for the first time since exiting a Special Select Committee.
The reforms were seen as necessary before the holding of local government elections which were last held in 1994.