A group of Members of Parliament for the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party joined some of the party’s supporters this morning in a picketing exercise outside Parliament, calling on Speaker Manzoor Nadir to set a date for the election of the Leader of the Opposition.

The 13th Parliament was convened three weeks ago with all of the Members of Parliament being sworn in. However, there was no meeting of the Opposition Members for the election of the Leader of the Opposition.

Since then, the WIN party has written to the Speaker on the issue, and the party’s Attorney even dispatched a letter threatening legal action if the meeting is not called within two weeks.

The WIN party has the most Opposition seats in the National Assembly and it is likely that the party’s leader, embattled businessman Azruddin Mohamed, will be elected to the position of Leader of the Opposition, which is a Constitutional position.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, has been silent on the issue and has not indicated when he will call the meeting of the Opposition Members for the election to take place.

At the protest this morning, Member of Parliament and WIN General Secretary, Odessa Primus, said the party is not being provided with any information on the issue.

“We have no information on when Parliament will reconvene, we have no information on what is going on, and we have looked at when other Opposition Leaders were sworn in, and with the exception of if there is a factor affecting that process, it usually goes ahead to the best of our knowledge, there is nothing that is preventing, outside of the Government’s victimization in terms of the swearing in of the Leader of the Opposition. The opposition forms part of the Government, and so what we are doing right now is basically functioning as a dictatorship because whatever the Government says, goes, and whatever the Government does goes”, Primus said.

She reminded that the election of the Leader of the Opposition forms part of the democratic principles governing the country, and the Speaker should therefore set the date for the Leader of the Opposition to be elected.

“We have had the PPP in the past profess that they are standing up for democracy while they themselves today are the persons who are ensuring that the democratic process does not take place and we are in an unfortunate state and at this point we would like to call on all of Guyana, whether or not you supported us in the elections, this is about the democracy of our country, and so we all need to stand up on this”, she said.

Attorney for the WIN party, Siand Dhurjon, said the party is already drafting Court proceedings to be filed against the Speaker.

“He has an obligation to facilitate the election of the Leader of the Opposition…We are not saying that the Leader of the Opposition has to be elected during a sitting. The Leader of the Opposition has to be elected during a meeting convened specifically among the non-government members of the National Assembly and it should be done as soon as possible. The very Constitution contemplates that it be done as soon as possible”, the Attorney said.

The WIN party intends to continue pressing on the Speaker to call the meeting for the election of the Leader of the Opposition.

Last Friday, the APNU, which has the second largest amount of seats in the National Assembly on the Opposition side, reminded that the Opposition Leader’s office is a Constitutional office and it ought to be filled.

The APNU has questioned the Speaker’s delay in convening a meeting of the Opposition Members of the National Assembly for the election of the Leader of the Opposition.

In 2011, then APNU Leader, David Granger was elected Opposition Leader four days after the first sitting of the new Parliament.

In 2015, while the PPP boycotted the National Assembly for more than two months, when the party did show up to take up its seats on the Opposition side, Bharrat Jagdeo was elected Opposition Leader on the same day of the party’s return to the Assembly.

In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Joseph Harmon was elected Opposition Leader at the first sitting of the new Parliament in that year.

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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 No date set for election of Leader of the Opposition Harmon warns Speaker of any effort to obstruct Opposition’s work in Parliament