The collectiveeffort by the Opposition Political Parties (APNU/AFC and ANUG/TNM/LJP) represented in the National Assembly to launch a relentless attack on Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh has stemmed from the ignorance of the three parties that formed the joinder list to contest the 2020 elections and due to which the they garnered enough surplus votes to be allocated one seat.
ANUG/TNM/LJP formed an alliance through the joinder list provision to contest the elections. One of the primary positions of this arrangement of these three parties, having won a seat in the National Assembly was that they would share the seat on a rotational basis i.e. something not provided for in the Representation of the people act, Chapter 1:03. Notwithstanding they have lawyers of the highest repute among this collective, not a single person from within these three parties recognized, discovered or acknowledged that the is very specific on how the seat should be allocated.
In their state of blind ignorance, the representatives of the joinder list correctly submitted the name of Mr. Lennox Shuman to be appointed as a Member of Parliament. Upon the resignation of Mr. Shuman as a MP, the Representatives of the three Parties, having been lawfully notified by the Speaker of the National Assembly that a vacancy existed and needed to be filled, the three Representatives of the joinder lists submitted the name of Dr. Asha Kissoon, to the Speaker, as the person to fill the vacancy. Apparently, at this time, one Mr. Gerald Forde had resigned from the TNM, and was replaced as Representative of the List of this party via internal maneuvers.
It is now public knowledge, through a pronouncement that was made by GECOM’s Legal Officer, that Section 97(5) of that Act Representation of the People Act provides that the seats allocated to a combination of lists, as in this case where the LJP, TNM and ANUG joined their lists, had to be further ‘allocated among the lists comprised in the combination’ in accordance with section 97(2) and (3). Considering that only one seat allocated to that combination, Section 97(3)(a) mandated that this ‘one seat shall be allocated to the list with the largest number of surplus votes’. As the LJP had the largest number of surplus votes of the parties in the combination, that seat had to be allocated to the LJP. There is no allowance for that seat to be rotated among the Parties in the combination.
Editor, the truth of this matter are as follows: –
- It is clear that, at the time that the three joinder parties entered into their ‘agreement’, and notwithstanding the existence of legal luminaries among their membership, they were ignorant of the provision that prohibits the sharing of a Parliamentary seat as is the case in point.
- At the time of the extraction of the name of Dr. Kissoon, and her consequential appointment as a Member of Parliament, there was no objection, including none from Mr. Gerald Forde, to her appointment accordingly.
- A controversy erupted when Dr. Kissoon refused to demit office as a MP upon the expiry of the term for which her name was submitted to the Speaker, based on an agreement between the joinder parties. Since then, we have witnessed the emergence of Mr. Gerald Forde claiming that he, in his capacity of Representative of the List of the TNM, did not extract the name of Dr. Kissoon from his party’s list. This led to him writing GECOM so informing and calling for the Commission to take action which would result in the removal of Dr. Kissoon from the National Assembly. However, GECOM apparently for its on reason, appears to have taken no action in this regard.
- Consequent upon the pronouncement of the GECOM legal Officer on the matter, there has been a resurrection of the agitation of the joinder parties, now with vigorous support from the APNU/AFC, to have Dr. Kissoon removed from Parliament through some kind of perceived action by the GECOM Chairman. This incitement has reached an upsurge wherein this matter is being used in the vilest manner to malign the integrity of the GECOM Chairman, while none of those that are involved in this despicable effort has done no introspection which would have resulted in their recognition of the very finger pointing back at them for their embarrassing illiteracy about the central issue. None will take or accept blame. Why do so when they can singly and together make the GECOM Chairman their ‘whipping girl’, thereby deflecting attention from themselves about their now disconcerting folly.
- Meanwhile, it would appear that the thing to do would be to test the matter in court to determine whether GECOM has the authority to overturn the appointment of Dr. Kissoon as a Member of Parliament, whether the Speaker has the authority to declare the seat vacant even while it continues to be occupied by Dr. Kissoon, and whether the court has the authority to intervene in the operations of the Parliament. I daresay that this seems to be the logical thing to do under the prevailing circumstances. However, instead of showing that they have the testicular apparatus to so do, the leaders of the afore mentioned parties prefer to focus their loathsome attacks on the GECOM Chairman.
Editor, this matter, like so many similar others that permeate our newsprint and airwaves, indicates clearly that there is a deliberate sustained poorly-concealed strategy by the collective APNU/AFC/LJP/ANUG/TNM aimed at undermining confidence in the GECOM Chairman and, by extension, in the conduct and outcome of the General Elections to be held next year.