Leader of the Opposition, Tillman Thomas, is making a bold move to topple Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lawrence Joseph from the top chair.
Thomas has filed a Motion of No Confidence in Joseph and calling for him to tender his resignation to the House.
The move follows a walk-out of the seven members of the Opposition in December during the height of the 2007 budget debate.
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| Speaker Larry Joseph |
Speaker Joseph was trying to prevent Opposition Member for the Town of St. George, Peter David from dealing extensively with the US$500, 000.00 briefcase bribery allegations against Prime Minister Mitchell.
The Grenadian leader is still the subject of a public inquiry ordered by Governor-General, Sir Daniel Williams into allegations that he accepted a substantial bribe from arrested international con-man Eric Resteiner in exchange for a diplomatic job.
The motion against Speaker Joseph is expected to be placed on the Order Paper for the next sitting of the House of Representatives.
Following is the full text of the motion aimed at censoring the speaker:
WHEREAS Section 59 Sub section (3) of the Grenada Constitution sets out that "the function of the Cabinet shall be to advise the Governor-General in the government of Grenada and the Cabinet shall be collectively responsible to Parliament for any advice given to the Governor-General by or under the general authority of the Cabinet and for all things done by or under the authority of any Minister in the execution of the office.";
AND WHEREAS, by virtue of Section 59 Sub section (3) of the said Constitution, Parliament has an unhindered right and responsibility to examine and enquire into the performance, work, conduct and statements of any Minister of Government in the context of the exercise of his or her official duties, subject only to the STANDING ORDERS of this Honourable House ;
AND WHEREAS STANDING ORDER No. 43, paragraph (1) of the STANDING ORDERS of this Honourable House of Representatives ordains that the Speaker of this Honourable House "shall be responsible for the observance of the rules of order" and that his or her decisions upon any point of order "shall not be open to appeal and shall not be reviewed by the House except upon a substantive motion made after notice";
AND WHEREAS in and by some of his rulings and decisions in this Honourable House, the present Speaker has failed or refused to properly discharge his duties as the Umpire of this Honourable House by exhibiting in his rulings and decisions, serious partiality in favour of Government Ministers and consistently displaying bias against members of Her Majesty's Opposition;
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| Opposition Leader Thomas |
AND WHEREAS in particular, during the recently concluded 2007 Budget debates between December 18th and 23rd 2006, the Speaker of the House, the Honourable Lawrence Joseph willfully and deliberately misinterpreted and misapplied the provisions of STANDING ORDER No.38 (1) so as to deprive members of Her Majesty's Opposition an opportunity to refer, in their contributions, to matters of national importance involving the work, conduct, decisions and statements of both the Prime Minister of Grenada, the Hon. Dr. Keith Mitchell and the Minister of Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Grenada, Mr. Elvin Nimrod;
AND WHEREAS as a result of his bias and partiality, the present Speaker has brought this Honourable House into disrepute and lowered the standards of debate of the said House;
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that this Honourable House of Representatives has lost total confidence in the ability and willingness of the present Speaker to properly interpret and fairly apply the Standing Orders;
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Honourable House of Representatives now demand that the Honourable Lawrence Joseph resigns as Speaker of House of Representatives forthwith.
