Leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan has called the Clerk of the National Assembly’s refusal to convene Parliament as requested by the Speaker an act of insubordination.

Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Ramjattan said that “at this stage we did not anticipate this because we felt that the argument that the legislative branch is separate from the executive branch should not be compromised by any administrative arrangement by the Clerk.”

Opposition Leader David Granger could not be reached yesterday for comment on Isaacs’ decision.

Ramjattan told Stabroek News that he believed that the Head of the Presiden-tial Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon “had a lot to do with this,” in reference to the Clerk, Sherlock Isaacs’ decision to refuse to convene the National Assem-bly at the request of the Speaker of the House, Raphael Trotman.

The leader of the AFC stated that “I understand that they (government) were lobbying him (Isaacs) and they were trying to get at him and persuade him not to hold (the sitting) on (November 6th)”. He continued that there has been “unjustified interference in the legislature by senior executive ranking members.”

Ramjattan noted that “the Clerk in the hierarchy of the National Assembly comes below the Speaker who is the leader of the legislative branch and the Clerk’s position by nomenclature is clerical (and) to do the clerical matters to ensure that the legislative branch gets its operational matters in place.”

He said that the Speaker’s authority to set a date for Parliament under Standing Order 8(2) was affirmed by former Speaker of the House, Ralph Ramkarran as well as Trotman. “To not go and set this date … and (defying) the legal opinion of three speakers is in my book insubordination,” he said.

Khemraj Ramjattan

Ramjattan stated that the Clerk has the responsibility to work under the instruction of the Speaker. “The instruction by the Speaker, how would that be different than the Prime Minister would say to him to set the date? The Standing Order 8(2) is saying that the Speaker can set the date just like the Prime Minister could.”

He called the clerk’s decision irresponsible given the political climate. Ramjattan said that while going forward was a wait-and-see process the Speaker had options. He said that while the Clerk was not acting there was nothing preventing the Speaker from rallying ranks underneath the Clerk and requesting they execute his instructions.

“It could be the Speaker could get the deputy or staff members to execute ihis instruction by sending them to buy the airfare for MPs, out of town… because something has to be done,” the AFC leader stated.

When questioned on the Speaker’s decision to accept the Clerk’s interpretation although it differed from his own, Ramjattan stated that he did not wish to comment on that matter.

If Trotman circumvents the Clerk’s interpretation of the Standing Orders, observers say the government could move to the courts.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Trotman stated that “the effect of the Clerk’s decision not to convene the sitting has the effect of crippling the ability of the Members of Parliament to meet” continuing that “this in itself brings the Constitution into derision and disregard and cannot be what the framers of our Constitution intended.”