Deputy Speaker and A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament Debra Backer who was flown to the United States for medical treatment will return to Guyana on Friday. Details of her illness remain unknown at this time.
Opposition Leader David Granger told Guyana Times International that Backer, who will miss the 67th sitting of the National Assembly of the 10th Parliament of Guyana, has left the U.S. and is expected to stop over in Trinidad and Tobago before arriving in Guyana on Friday.
Today, Backer was expected to move a motion for the second reading of The Married Persons (Property) Amendment Bill 2013”; however, it will be deferred given her absence.
Collectively, APNU and the Alliance For Change (AFC) have more than four items on the order paper for today’s (Thursday) proceedings, but Granger said the opposition will deal with matters as they arise in the House.
He stressed that the opposition will pursue the order paper as it is printed by the National Assembly, and “we will see what will happen on the floor”.
In addition to the second reading of the Married Persons (Property) Amendment Bill 2013, under the private members’ business, AFC Member of Parliament Trevor Williams is expected to move a motion for the “Reintroduction of the Berbice River Ferry Service from New Amsterdam to Kwakwani,” in addition to the “Restoration of the Annual Subvention/Grant to the Critchlow Labour College”.
APNU’s Joseph Harmon is also slated to move a motion for the National Assembly in accordance with Standing Order Number 52 (1), grant leave for the introduction and first reading of the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2013 and another motion regarding the reduction of tolls at the Berbice River Bridge.
Meanwhile under government’s business, the Local Authorities (Elections) Amendment Bill 2013, the Wildlife Import and Export Bill 2013, the Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2013, the Firearms (Amendment) Bill 2013, Summary Jurisdiction (Procedure) Amendment Bill 2013 and the Guyana Cricket Administration Bill 2012 are up for a second reading.
Asked whether the government is concerned about a possible deadlock in the National Assembly today, Government’s Chief Whip Gail Teixeira said the business of the government will go on.
