Prorogation

On Monday (November 10), for the first time since Independence, Guyana’s Parliament was “prorogued”. Since June of this year, the populace has been educated to the nuances of the Parliamentary “No-Confidence” Motion through its introduction by the AFC and supported by APNU. It is clear that Guyanese, both at home and abroad, will have to become familiar with this other, somewhat arcane, practice of Parliament, and this editorial is a preliminary to contribute to this objective.

Very simply, the prorogation of a Parliament results in the termination of a session of that Parliament and its principal effect is to put an end to all its unfinished business. The latter “dies” on the Order Paper, while none of the Committees that might be considering other business can sit during the period of the prorogation.

All business will have to be reintroduced as if they never existed during the next session. In Canada, however, where there have been several recent instances of prorogation, their legislature has given unanimous consent to a motion to reinstate a bill in a new session at the same stage it had reached before prorogation. The President may consider offering this option to the Opposition.

As can be inferred from the above, the severe repercussions of a prorogation should force all concerned that it should be exercised lightly. In the Westminster Parliamentary system that we have inherited from the British, the powers of Parliament gradually expanded by assuming prerogatives that were once solely at the discretion of the Monarch.

However three have remained with the Head of State in most Commonwealth jurisdictions – “prorogation”; “dissolution”, which ends the Parliament altogether, thus requiring an election; and summoning a new “Parliament” or session.

These prerogatives were retained in our Constitution when it was drastically revised in 1999-2000 after nationwide consultations and recommendations and then unanimously approved by the PPP/C, PNC and other smaller parties such as the WPA during that Parliament. The power to prorogue must have been retained for a purpose: the very purpose, in fact, which President Ramotar is seeking to achieve.

Faced with the Opposition totally unwilling to consider passing even Bills such as the AML/CFT, or the Telecommunications Bill to deregulate the vitally important ICT area, while insisting on their No-Confidence Bill that would dissolve Parliament and plunge the country into immediate elections, the President has provided a breathing space in which hopefully saner, more patriotic voices may prevail. Voices that would speak up on behalf of Guyana’s development, rather than for narrow partisan political interests.

Our maximum period of prorogation is six months and while technically the President can summon Parliament at the end of that period to prorogue it again, this we believe would go against the spirit of why the prerogative was retained. We are heartened by the President’s announcement that he would be willing to summon Parliament even before the six months if the Opposition would work together with him on some concrete objectives for the development of the country.

We would like to suggest to the President that he announces the objectives he is seeking to achieve in six months very clearly and challenge the Opposition to cooperate on this minimum programme. We would also suggest that the President commits to elections, latest at the end of the six month period, whether or not the Opposition cooperates. This certitude of plans for the next half year is imperative to instill confidence in the minds of the citizenry that will most likely be bombarded by all sorts of Opposition scare tactics.

The leader of APNU said he is “enraged” at the President’s use of his prerogative: yet he was totally sanguine about the AFC’s No-Confidence Motion, which in fact he promised to support. While the latter’s motion would have totally dissolved the Parliamentary process and plunged the country into new elections, the President’s path at least offers an opportunity for completing the present parliamentary agenda.