Declaring that he has not seen a letter from the representative of the list from The New Movement (TMN) to recall Dr. Kissoon from the National Assembly, the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, told News Source on Monday that if such a letter was sent to the Speaker of the National Assembly from the Representative of the List, then that would be sufficient to recall Dr. Kissoon from Parliament.

Over the weekend, member of A New and United Guyana and Former Speaker of the House, Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, launched a scathing attack against Dr. Asha Kissoon for not relinquishing her parliamentary seat and making way for the representative from ANUG to take up the seat in keeping with the joinder parties agreement.

The Representative of the List for TMN, Dr. Gerald Forde, said he had written to the Speaker of the National Assembly back in March stating that the parties have lost confidence in Dr. Kissoon and therefore she should be recalled.

Contacted on Monday, Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Manzoor Nadir did not confirm or deny whether he had received the letter, instead he said his response to the issue would be ‘silence’. 

Pressed further, the Speaker noted that person who usually writes GECOM on changes in the National Assembly would be the Clerk of the House. But the Clerk, Sherlock Isaacs, is maintaining that he has not seen any letter from TNM’s representative of the list.

“The thing is, I haven’t seen the letter that was sent to the Speaker,” the National Assembly Clerk told News Source…. “I read about it in the papers but Mr. Speaker didn’t show me any letter, that was sent to him by the representative of the TNM,” the Clerk noted.

Last Week, the Guyana Elections Commission said it cannot remove Dr. Kissoon from her seat in Parliament unless a vacancy exists.

Over the weekend, Mr. Ramkarran agreed that GECOM cannot replace Dr. Kissoon on its own, because she can only be replaced if the Speaker of the National Assembly declared that a vacancy exists.

He explained that since the Speaker has not done so, GECOM cannot displace Dr. Kissoon.

Ramkarran also maintained that the letter from the Head of TNM’s list is with the Speaker.

Ramkarran argued that removing Dr. Kissoon, should not have been such a complicated issue since there is precedence in the National Assembly.

The Clerk agreed with the position of the Mr. Ramkarran and said that, the process outlined by him, has been used before to remove a member of the National Assembly.

Prior to the 2020 General and Regional Elections, A New and United Guyana (ANUG), The New Movement (TNM) and Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), decided to enhance their chances of gaining representation in the National Assembly by signing a joinder agreement.

Following the elections, the three parties combined their votes and were able to pick up a seat in the National Assembly.

Under the agreement, the LJP which secured the highest number of votes took its turn first.

ANUG was set to go next, but opted to allow Kissoon to take up the seat for the three months that was allocated to her party based on its small number of votes.

Kissoon has refused to relinquish the seat although that three month stint has now expanded to more than a year.

Related posts:

GECOM says it has no authority to remove TNM Leader from National Assembly, but still discussing the issue Leader of The New Movement list calls for Kissoon’s recall and probe by GECOM Government uses majority to elect TNM’s Dr. Asha Kissoon as Deputy Speaker of National Assembly Speaker wants National Assembly to meet on November 6