PNCR urges Asha Kissoon, GECOM, House Speaker to end parliamentary seat fiasco

Last Updated on Saturday, 7 December 2024, 0:17 by Writer

The main opposition People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) on Friday urged Leader of The New Movement (TNM), Dr Asha Kissoon to resign from parliament and make way for a Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) parliamentarian to legally occupy the joinder seat.

PNCR executive member, Ganesh Mahipaul said in keeping with a memorandum of understanding among the TNM, ANUG (A New and United Guyana) and LJP, she should have served 91 days from April 24, 2023 rather than refusing to vacate the seat. “From that perspective, the human, decent thing to do would have been to vacate the seat after you served your time,” he said.

Mr Mahipaul said alternatively the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) could revoke her certificate as a parliamentarian. “If they recognised that they erred, they can revoke that certificate and by revocation of that certificate, it means that she is not eligible sit there,” he told a news conference.

Either way, that would trigger the process for the Speaker of the National Assembly to ask the LJP’s Representative of the List of Candidates to extract the name of someone to fill that vacancy.

Declaring that Dr Kissoon is a “national squatter”, Mr Mahipaul said “we should not condone illegalities” and so both GECOM and House Speaker, Manzoor Nadir should take action. “We are hoping that they do act within the best of what is correct, what is legal and what is in keeping with the Constitution and laws of this country,” he said.

The issue came to the fore last month when GECOM’s Legal Adviser, Attorney-at-Law Kurt Da Silva said that election management authority erred by not saying that the LJP, with the highest number of votes, should have had a parliamentary representative for the life of the current parliament. Results of the March 2020 general and regional elections show that the LJP won 2,657 votes, ANUG, 2,313 and TNM, 244.