Deputy Speaker asks int’l community to ‘speak up’ as National Assembly denounces Venezuela’s referendum
Dr. Asha Kissoon, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and the representative of the joinder list, called on Guyana’s international partners to continue supporting Guyana as the country seeks to settle its ongoing border controversy with Venezuela.
She spoke during an Extraordinary sitting of the National Assembly on Monday.
Here, lawmakers are gathered at the National Assembly to denounce Venezuela’s planned referendum on its claim to Guyana’s Essequibo region.
Dr. Kissoon, like fellow Opposition Parliamentarian Khemraj Ramjattan, believes that the planned December 3, 2023 referendum is a tactic being used by the Nicola Maduro government in Venezuela to distract citizens from the country’s economic failures.
But she said Guyana must not be used to do so. Further, she highlighted that Guyana has long been adhering to international procedures and laws to settle the boundary with Venezuela but it is that country that continues to aggressively challenge these procedures and international law.
So she threw her full support behind the government’s pursuit of a peaceful, final and binding ruling on the border at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
And she called on the international community to similarly support Guyana’s endeavours.
“We require our international partners to speak up and support Guyana as we stand on the side of the law,” Dr. Kissoon said.
Already, Guyana’s endeavours before the ICJ have received support from many foreign partners including the United Nations (UN), the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union (EU) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Dr. Kissoon is an Opposition MP although not part of the main parliamentary opposition – the APNU+AFC. She is the leader of the New Movement (TNM). That party, together with A New and United Guyana (ANUG) and the Liberty and Justice Party (JLP), joined their lists to contest the March 2020 elections.
The combined votes gained in the elections allowed the three parties to have one seat in the National Assembly. They had agreed that the seat would be rotated so that all three parties would have representation in the five-year term of the Parliament.
The Deputy Speaker was the second Opposition Parliamentarian to speak during the Extraordinary sitting and the third speaker overall.
