Though the stage maybe set for a showdown at Friday’s Parliament sitting, the Opposition is already crying foul ahead of the debate after their no-confidence motion was bumped in the order paper to facilitate a government endorsement motion.
Now, Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart is accusing the PACT administration of acting in a heavy handed manner when it comes to the Progressives’ motions.
“Despite our motion of a Lack of Confidence in the Government having been filed a week prior to the Confidence in Government motion being brought by MP Dwayne Seymour, the Government again hijacked the process and placed MP Seymour’s motion on the Order Paper for tomorrow, 7 October ahead of our Lack of Confidence in Government motion,” McTaggart said in a statement issued Thursday night.
The Cayman Compass has reached out to Premier Wayne Panton for a response to McTaggart’s assertions. We are awaiting a response.
This latest action follows Deputy Speaker Katherine Ebanks-Wilks rejection of the Opposition leader’s no confidence motion in House Speaker McKeeva Bush.
Bush announced his resignation on Wednesday, the same day Ebanks-Wilks refused the Progressives’ motion.
McTaggart objected to the way the motions were being handled and how the Parliament process was being used by the government through its majority.
“Not only have they banded together to prevent a motion of lack of confidence in the Speaker from being debated but they have done so on a false premise,” he argued.
Earlier in the day, McTaggart released a letter from Ebanks-Wilks, in which she outlined her reasoning for refusing the Bush no-confidence motion.
Ebanks-Wilks, in the 6 Oct. letter, said the motion had not been submitted on time.
She said notice of motions must be given “five clear days”, not including weekends, ahead of a House sitting. She referred to a notice regarding the filing of motions, received from the parliamentary clerk, which “expressly excludes the weekends in the calculation of the 5 clear days”.
However, the Opposition leader pointed out that the clerk had, in that notice, counted Saturday in her five-day calculation.
He urged Ebanks-Wilks to reconsider her decision to not allow the motion to proceed.
“The role of the Speaker is an ancient and esteemed one,” he said. “It requires that party political biases be put aside, that fairness and objectivity be paramount, and that the interest of our democracy supersedes all other considerations.”
In his statement Thursday evening, he maintained that the Deputy Speaker is “blatantly wrong.”
“I suspect she has not consulted the Hon Attorney General on this matter. I do not know whom she would have sought advice from. The Government and the Deputy Speaker have, therefore, hijacked a valid motion that has been correctly filed,” he added.
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