By Svetlana Marshall

Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, walked right pass the Leader of the WIN Party and a parliamentary delegation today at Parliament buildings, and rejected an impromptu request by the WIN delegation for a meeting.

The WIN team was at the Parliament building to meet with Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs.

As the Speaker arrived, he exchanged Good Morning pleasantries with the WIN MP and headed to his office. He refused to answer questions regarding the election of the Opposition Leader and his ongoing refusal to call a meeting of Opposition Members for that election to take place.

As the Speaker retreated to his office, the WIN team, led by party leader Azruddin Mohamed, attempted to meet with the Speaker, but they were informed that he was not meeting with anyone today.

Mr. Mohamed told News Source that the Speaker’s attitude was not welcoming.

“We asked him to meet. He said he can’t meet with us. We are Members of Parliament. We came here to meet with the Speaker because we are heading into a budget. We are heading into a budget and this will be the biggest budget ever in the history of the country. Last year’s budget was $1.3 Trillion but it looks like the PPP/C, they want to siphon off hundreds of billions of dollars of tax payers money for themselves, their friends, their families, and their favorites,” the MP Mohamed told News Source.

WIN MP Dawn Hastings-Williams, who had previously served as an APNU Member of Parliament, said the attitude of the Speaker leaves much to be desired.

“I have known Mr Manzoor Nadir for quite sometime, and what happened this morning was very disappointing. Because we are here meeting him after a long time, after the first sitting and we were just going to pay a courtesy visit, to make a courtesy call on him, and to have a discussion with him concerning the matters that are ahead, and then for him to deny us this opportunity is really disappointing,” MP Hasting-Williams said.

Vishnu Panday, another WIN MP, said the Speaker is in clear breach of the Constitution with his ongoing refusal to allow the election of an Opposition Leader.

“This is highly undemocratic, and when we speak about a governance of a country, it does not confine itself only to the Government but included in the Government other members of parliament, whether we refer to them as Opposition, etc. We also want everyone to know that we have to represent our people, over 109,000 people in Guyana voted for Mr Azruddin Mohamed and the party. We have a duty, fundamentally and legally to these people, we have a commitment, and the deliberate attempt, therefore to deny the appointment of the Leader of the Opposition is simply dictatorial,” MP Panday told News Source.

Ahead of their attempt to speak with the Speaker, the MPs sat down with the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, to discuss the election of an Opposition Leader issue.

“He said it is above his pay grade,” MP Mohamed said, as he alluded to the discussion with Mr. Isaacs.

Mr Isaacs told News Source, that while he met with a number of WIN MPs, he was unable to provide the answers they sought.

“They asked a few questions and I did not comment on the questions. With respect to the convening of the meeting to elect the Leader of the Opposition, I did not have a discussion with the Speaker on the matter. He did not discuss it with me. I saw him about two weeks ago, we were looking at questions and motions, he did not raise the matter, and I did not raise it with him. So, I do not know what is the present position. It is above my pay grade, it is a matter for the speaker of the National Assembly,” the Clerk said.

Isaacs said while the meeting would not appear on the order paper for Monday’s sitting, the meeting could be called at any time.

WIN, which constitutes the largest opposition party in the House, is warning that any attempt to proceed with the reading of the budget in the absence of an elected Opposition Leader would see them moving to the Courts.

A number of members of the Diplomatic community have expressed concern over the delay in electing a Leader of the Opposition, noting the importance of having the office filled.

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Former Speaker concerned over delays by current Speaker to call meeting for election of Opposition Leader Mohamed accuses Speaker of colluding with Government to delay election of Opposition Leader APNU calls on Speaker to set meeting for election of Opposition Leader WIN threatens Court action against Speaker over non convening of meeting to elect Opposition Leader