Deputy Speaker Dr. Asha Kissoon has shown no sign of willingly giving up her seat in the National Assembly in keeping with the agreement of three small parties, but now, the leader of her party’s list has asked for her to be recalled from Parliament.
In a letter written to Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairwoman, Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, the Head of the list of representatives for The New Movement (TNM), Gerald Forde asked that Dr. Kissoon be removed from the National Assembly.
But first, GECOM is tasked with probing whether Mr. Forde is still in fact the representative of the TMN’s list of candidates since both he and the deputy representative, Josh Kanhai left the party because of internal issues.
Mr. Forde told Justice Singh that he does not recall submitting any official correspondence indicating that he was no longer part of the party. That correspondence would have removed him as the representative of the list.
Without it, and without any engagements from GECOM, he believes he may very well be the representative of the TMN’s list. And he believes that would allow him to recall Dr. Kissoon from the National Assembly.
Forde, however, contended that an individual called Kenrick Morgan signed the letter for Dr. Kissoon to be appointed to the National Assembly – a move Forde now considers to be impossible since he was never officially removed as the representative of the TNM list.
“If during (an) investigation it is found that I am still the representation (sic) of the list of the TMN’s candidates, I move to recall Dr. Kissoon from the National Assembly in order to make way for the ANUG candidate Althia King,” Mr. Forde wrote in the letter.
Dr. Kissoon, the TMN’s Presidential candidate for the 2020 General and Regional Elections, is being accused of breaching the agreement of trust, signed between three small parties after the 2020 elections.
A New and United Guyana (ANUG), TNM and the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) agreed to merge their votes to secure a single seat in Parliament and to share occupation of that seat in proportion to the votes each party earned.
LJP’s Lenox Shuman first went into the National Assembly. He then resigned, making way for Dr. Kissoon to enter the Parliament. Now, ANUG representatives and Mr. Shuman have said that Dr. Kissoon should have already been out of the Parliament, making way for the ANUG representative, Althia King.
In an invited comment on Sunday, Shuman expressed his disappointment over what was transpiring. According to him, Dr. Kissoon was “undermining the people’s trust and confidence.”
Like ANUG representatives have been saying publicly for weeks now, Shuman noted that Dr. Kissoon’s actions do not bode well for the three parties that inked an agreement to share the single seat in the National Assembly.
But now, he urges people to scrutinise the actions of Dr. Kissoon.
“I think at some point, you have to look at the integrity of people and the integrity of the party that they support,” Shuman said.
Haiti need doctors urgently & integrity not a problem there…gift her with a chartered flight to get her out of here asap. maybe a couple of the crass politicians also.They would fit in well there too.