In A Month Of Sundays
Peeping Tom
Kaieteur News
May 13, 2007
The PPP has come to the rescue of the PNCR. Just as how the two found reasons to join forces after the election to reach an arrangement to share the Chairman and Vice Chairman positions with the Regional Administration system, so too once again the two parties are finding common ground on the question of recall legislation.
Recall legislation would allow the political parties to replace parliamentarians. Thus, for example if the political parties within the National Assembly feel that there is a need to recall a member of parliament, they can do so by, replacing that person with someone else from the party's list of representatives that was used to contest the last elections.
Readers will recall that following the expulsion of Khemraj Ramjattan from the PPP and the resignation of Raphael Trotman from the People's National Congress Reform, there were calls for both of these men to demit their seats in the National Assembly. Ramjattan stubbornly resisted resigning, but Trotman took a different position. He was prepared to give up all his parliamentary appointments but was concerned with the manner in which he was being asked to do so. He was expecting that civility would prevail and that he would be called by his former party and formally informed of their desire for him to demit.
Even though the proposed legislation seeks to amend the constitution, even if it is passed it may still be subject to a constitutional challenge if it is felt that it is repugnant towards the spirit of constitutionalism and in contradiction with other related provisions of the constitution.
Our constitution itself is underpinned by the sovereignty of the people. It is the people who elect the representatives to the National Assembly and thus it should follow that the people's wishes cannot be simply dispensed with at the whim and fancy of political parties.
On the other hand, it is argued that the people do not directly elect the representatives to the parliament but instead vote for a list from which these representatives are culled. However you look at it, therefore there is a link between the exercise of the franchise of the electorate and the list of representatives; even though the party decides who will be its parliamentarians, it is constrained by the fact that these representatives can only come from that list, and secondly, there is in additional constraint related to the fact that in the case of non-top up seats, it has to choose regional representatives. All of these facts combine to question how democratic and in conformance with the spirit of the constitution is recall legislation.
Since recall legislation requires a constitutional amendment, it means that it will have to be carried by at least a two-thirds majority in the House, meaning that the PPP needs to have the support of at least some members of the PNCR to effect this legislation. That support is now assured because the main opposition has indicated that it supports the proposed legislation.
But why would the PPP want recall legislation. They have not expelled from the party any of their existing parliamentarians and there is no evidence that any of their leaders will soon be facing disciplinary proceedings.
There is also no evidence that the President wishes to change his Cabinet and does not wish to be constrained by having to choose solely from his party's reps in the National Assembly. There is therefore no reason why the PPP should be proceeding with this legislation other than to be coming to the assistance of its traditional nemesis, the PNCR.
Presently there is an imbroglio within the main opposition with seven members of the Central Executive of that party, including two of its existing parliamentarians, supporting a candidate to contest for leadership. The PNCR therefore could theoretically be faced with a problem if the two parliamentarians who are supporting that candidate are not returned to the Central Executive of the party or if after the Congress they find themselves at odds with the existing leadership.
Recall legislation would give the party the option of recalling any parliamentarian that it is feels may not serve the best interest of the party in the National Assembly. Indirectly therefore passing recall legislation at this stage strengthens the hands of the leader of the PNCR.
Why would the PPP want to do this? The only logical explanation is that the PPP is introducing recall legislation because it wants to support the present leader of the PNCR.
But why should the PPP want to support Uncle Bob? That is not difficult to answer. The PPP believes that in a month of Sundays so long as Uncle Bob is his party's presidential candidate, it can easily defeat the PNCR no matter which candidate runs for the PPP.