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JANUARY 21st, 2006

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No suspension planned

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lawrence joseph says he has no intention of suspending members of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Friday's sitting of the House of Representatives to deal with the 2006 budget. "Contrary to what is being published in the media, the Speaker .... has confirmed that he has no intention of suspending any Parliamentarian from the meeting...", said a release from the Office of the Houses of Parliament.

"Nonetheless, the Speaker has reaffirmed that the issue relating to non compliance by certain Members of the House to a Resolution passed by the House on December 9, 2005, will be dealt with at an appropriate time and in an appropriate manner, to be approved by the House", it added.

The release was issued in response to claims made by NDC officials at a press conference Tuesday about the uncertainty of their status at Friday's sitting of Parliament. Opposition Member Nazim Burke told reporters assembled at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition that they have responded to the citizenship question posed by the Speaker and he appears not to be satisfied with the answers given.

Joseph questioned the Opposition members on their status in light of questioned raised about the legality of Opposition member Peter David to sit in the house since he is known to hold Canadian citizenship. Burke hinted that the Congress party members expected some kind of "erotic behaviour" on Friday in Parliament by the Government Side and described the current situation as nothing but "cheap and senseless" tactics by the Mitchell government.

He suggested that any action taken against them would be viewed as nothing but an attempt to stop the Opposition members from participating in the Budget debate.

The Opposition Shadow Finance Minister called on all their supporters to turn out at the Trade Centre at Grand Anse on Friday to give their support to the M.P's and to resist this attempt by Government to stop their participation. Burke warned that if Parliament decides to suspend them they will immediately convene parliament outside the Trade Centre.

The affected M.P, Peter David told the last sitting of Parliament that the Motion passed by Government to question Citizenship of members of the House is all about politics. He accused the Mitchell government of trying to get the seat for its defeated candidate in the November 2003 general elections, Senator Brenda Hood.