Speaker of the National Assembly Manzoor Nadir has allowed a motion of no-confidence against him to be debated at a future sitting of the House.
The motion was brought by the APNU+AFC Parliamentary Opposition.
The motion reads: “WHEREAS on December 29, 2021, the Minister of Finance sought to proceed with the second reading of the National Resource Fund Bill – No. 20 of 2021;
AND WHEREAS both before and after the Minister of Finance started to speak, Members of the Opposition objected vehemently to the second reading and debate, and stood to gain the Speaker’s attention;
AND WHEREAS the Speaker failed and/or refused to acknowledge the Members standing, and instead, encouraged the Minister to proceed and thereby purported to allow the debate on the second reading of the Bill to proceed;
AND WHEREAS thereafter Members of the Opposition left their places and entered into the well of the Assembly and began making loud noises of protest to obstruct and prevent the purported debate from proceeding, and further, Members of the Government also left their seats and entered into the well of the Assembly to ostensibly encourage the Minister of Finance to proceed;
AND WHEREAS a scene of chaos erupted in the National Assembly whereby there was noise and all members were on their feet and the Speaker inexplicably, purported to allow the debate to proceed whereby Members of the Opposition were compelled to remove the mace from the dias; believing that this would halt all proceedings;
AND WHEREAS it was incumbent on, and imperative for, the Speaker to halt the proceedings and to restore order in the National Assembly;
AND WHEREAS in an unprecedented move the Speaker purported to allow the Minister of Fiancne to continue to shout into the microphone and purported to allow the “debate” to continue and conclude and to allow a vote to be taken – even as all Members of the Assembly were not in their seats or in place and the mace was not in the Chamber of the National Assembly;
AND WHEREAS by his actions, both past and on December 29, 2022, the Speaker has demonstrated partiality and brought the Office of the Speaker into disrepute and public ridicule and the National Assembly into public odium, as from the inception of his tenure, the Speaker has routinely shown bias against the Opposition and its Members by, inter alia, refusing to allow debates on matters of an urgent, definite and public nature, such as the Sars-Covid 19 global pandemic; the nation-wide floods of 2021; striking down, refusing debate and unjustly amending opposition questions and motions; failing to protect Opposition Members, especially female Members, from the insults, invectives and abuses of Members of the Government side; failing and refusing to offer protection to a Member of the Opposition who was physically assaulted by a Government Minister and ordering the “lock out” of elected Members of the National Assembly from the Chamber, just to name a few;
BE IT RESOLVED that this National Assembly declare its loss of confidence in Mr. Manzoor Nadir as Speaker of the National Assembly.”
In January, Speaker Nadir had released a statement condemning the PNC’s attempts to bring his speakership of the National Assembly into disrepute.
