Speaker abiding by court decision on parliamentary secretaries

Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir on Thursday said he would obey the Chief Justice’s ruling that the appointments of Parliamentary Secretaries, Sarah Browne and Vikash Ramkissoon are unlawful.

Making his announcement before the commencement of proceedings, Nadir referred to words used by former Speaker, Dr Barton Scotland during a sitting of the National Assembly in 2016 in another matter.

“I refer to the words of the Honourable, former Speaker, Mr Scotland, on the 27th of February, 2016 and he concluded this way, ‘the honourable members are not here but I believe that I owe it to members of this House to understand their absence. Whatever views may exist at any time, the first obligation is to obey those decisions and then proceed from there’”, Nadir said.

Both Ramkissoon and Browne were absent from Thursday’s sitting of the National Assembly.

Last September, Browne and Ramkissoon were appointed under Article 186 of the Constitution, which provides that Parliamentary Secretaries may be appointed from among persons who are qualified to be elected as members of the National Assembly.

Such Secretaries are appointed by the President to

assist specific subject ministers and may respond to questions and debate matters in the Assembly; but they do not have voting rights.

Browne was appointed to Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai, while Ramkissoon was appointed to Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha.

Through his attorney Roysdale Forde SC, APNU+AFC MP Christopher Jones had argued that the appointments were unlawful.

He contended that the fundamental issue was not whether Browne and Ramkissoon were entitled and eligible to be appointed Parliamentary Secretaries, but whether they are entitled to be Members of the National Assembly by virtue of their appointment to the office of Parliamentary Secretary, at the time when they were elected Members of the House.

On April 20th this year, Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire SC had declared the appointment of Browne and Ramkissoon as Parliamentary Secretaries to be unlawful.

Browne and Ramkission have since sought a stay of the ruling pending an appeal.