The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) failed in its effort last Friday to remove the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lawrence Joseph, for what the party sees as his"bias and partiality" towards the ruling New National Party (NNP) government.

The sitting saw hours of heated debate between Members of Parliament on the Government and Opposition sides at the Grenada Trade Centre after two conflicting motions were tabled in Parliament.

The first Motion, presented by Leader of Government Business in the House, Deputy Prime Minister, Gregory Bowen, called for an apology from the Opposition Leader, Tillman Thomas while the second presented by the Leader of the Opposition himself, called for the resignation of the Speaker.

The Motion of no-confidence against Joseph claims that"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"

One of the issues which sparked widespread criticism of the Speaker among the Opposition was a ruling from Joseph in December during the 2007 Budget debate that sought to prevent Opposition M. P. For the Town of St. George, Peter David, from delving substantially into the"briefcase issue" involving Prime Minister Dr. Keth Mitchell.

The Opposition disagreed with the ruling saying that the matter is of national importance. They also charge that after David was told not to continue along those lines, Government Minister, Elvin Nimrod was allowed to speak at length on the same issue.

The NDC motion read in part:"AND WHEREAS in particular, during the recently concluded 2007 Budget debate between December 18th and 23rd, 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 Legal Affairs, Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Grenada, Mr Elvin Nimrod

³NOW 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 the House of Representatives forthwith."

The Motion went on to say that the bias and partiality of the Speaker has brought the House into disrepute and lowered the standards of debate of the House. The Government side disagreed with the motion and stated that in recent times Thomas together with other members of the Opposition have "shown gross disrespect to the Office of Speaker and a total disregard for the Standing Orders, rules and regulations of the House of Representatives".

Minister Bowen made reference to the walk-out staged by the Opposition during debate on the 2007 Budget in December 2006 after the Speaker ruled that David's presentation was contrary to the sub-judice principle as contained in Standing Order No. 38 (1) and also Thomas' statement ,"You are playing political games in this House" after he was asked by the Speaker to take his seat.

According to Bowen, the actions of the Opposition side have brought the office of the Speaker, the House and the parliamentary process into disrepute.

The Government side indicated that it had"full confidence" in  Speaker Joseph, a former Chairman of the NNP.