… to be debated in December after Budget presentation, debate
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo has asserted that the Coalition Administration of which he is apart of is not running away from the the no-confidence motion laid against them by Leader of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr Bharrat Jagdeo.
However, Nagamootoo, in an address to the public that was streamed live on the Department of Public Information’s (DPI) facebook page, asserted that the motion will not be debated before the presentation and debate of Budget 2019.
Moreover, while the Prime Minister assured that his administration is committed to debating the no-confidence motion, a date for its debate has not been fixed.
“We’re not running away from a no-confidence motion, we are prepared for a discussion on any such motion, but we believe that there are some issues that take precedent over such a motion…We will debate this motion, we will have this motion discussed, and we will defeat it; because it is not a viable motion, it is a motion that is bred out of desperation; it is a motion that is bred out of Opposition frustration; it is a motion that is bred by this opportunism to look forward to the new wealth of Guyana and trying to destabilise our beautiful country,” Nagamootoo posited, among other things, in his Friday afternoon address.
Referring to the Nagamootoo’s comments as “vacuous ramblings” the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) in a subsequent release called on Government to put the motion up for debate at the earliest time possible.
The Opposition said on Friday that in an attempt to make a ridiculous case that the no-confidence motion is an act of desperation and would be defeated, Nagamootoo has comically and desperately sought to argue for a delay in debating it.
“As they say, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’. Nagamootoo should stop spouting hot air and bring on the no-confidence motion for debate earliest. Despite all the “fat talk”, the truth is he is scared to death to do so. Instead, he parrots the Government’s position that the budget must be presented and debated first,” the PPP declared.
The PPP has also said that Government must accept the reality that Nagamootoo is widely regarded as a “political joke” in Guyana, and should be the last person assigned the responsibility of publishing the Government’s position; that is, if the Government wants that position to be taken seriously by the nation.
“This man simply has no credibility in the eyes of the Guyanese public, because of the number of lies which he has spoken and written over the years. Only recently, he threatened to demolish the PPP at Whim and at the Local Government Elections (LGE). The results show that not even the backers voted for his candidates at Whim, and the AFC received less than 4 per cent of the total votes cast at the LGE,” the party posited.
The PPP went on to address Nagamootoo’s claim of “fear and desperation”, reminding him that as Leader of Government Business, instead of leading his troops to Parliament last Friday, he led them into hiding at Congress Place; and “with the gates securely locked and the environs surrounded by a band of aggressive APNU supporters, he then puffed his chest to the press as he declared that he is not afraid of the no-confidence motion.”
“We reiterate our call for the no-confidence motion to be debated in the Parliament earliest, and we respectfully demand that the National Assembly puts the Motion up for debate. We say to the Government, ‘Stop the grandstanding outside the National Assembly and come to the National Assembly to debate the Motion’,” said the PPP.
Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, has written the Parliamentary Opposition, informing them that their motion will not be heard before the 2019 Budget is dealt with by the House.
Opposition Member of Parliament and former Attorney General Anil Nandlall had contended that the motion “cannot be ignored or tossed aside in favour of other Government business in the National Assembly. Certainly, it is required to be debated before a national budget is presented. The rationale is a pragmatic one: that if the No-Confidence Motion is dealt with after the budget, then the Government that presented the budget may not be in office to implement that budget,”.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan is expected to present the National Budget on Monday, November 26, 2018, and the debate is expected to commence one week after, with Consideration of the Estimates beginning the following week.
