Coalition says new NRF was not legally passed

Dec 30, 2021 News

…cites several breaches including missing Mace
Kaieteur News – Amid the chaotic scenes in the National Assembly Wednesday, the APNU+AFC Coalition said that the reality of the sitting is that the Natural Resource Fund Bill No. 20 of 2021 was not legally passed in the House.

A Parliament staff holds on to the Speaker’s Mace, which the opposition said was not in place during the passage of the bill

The coalition MPs had protested the sitting after the government refused to heed to calls for the bill to be sent to a special select committee for fine-tuning. In a statement the Coalition said, the Mace which is the symbol of authority and which must be present throughout the sitting of the Assembly when a law is to be passed, was not present.
Secondly, the Standing Orders state that a Member of the Assembly must be in his or her seat to vote in the National Assembly. “Most of the Government MPs were out of their seats, especially the Prime Minister who was on his feet waving. It is therefore clear that there was no legal vote. Clearly all of the aforementioned circumstances, rendered the passage of the Bill null and void,” the Coalition said. “Yet, the PPP in its quest to denude the NRF Act of 2019 so that it can pillage and plunder the Natural Resource Fund, went ahead and purported to have repealed the 2019 Act. The Act was not repealed. What is alarming is that the Speaker who should know better was complicit in this gross violation of the Standing Orders, Principles and Conventions associated with the good conduct of Parliamentary affairs. The APNU+AFC wishes to inform the Guyanese people that the prevailing law continues to be the Natural Resource Fund Act of 2019 because no legal vote was taken.”