The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE abrupt adjournment of Parliament yesterday is proof the Minnis administration has overseen the unraveling of the legislative branch of government, according to the Progressive Liberal Party.

In a statement, PLP Deputy Leader Chester Cooper said not only should Parliament not have met yesterday in the absence of sanitisation and free testing for staffers, but this issue and the country’s broader COVID-19 situation could be laid at the feet of Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.

It is something that he should face condemnation for, Mr Cooper said.

“While we have long held the view that the Minnis administration is inept and unfit for governance, we did not think it would have overseen what appears to be the unraveling of the legislative branch of our democracy,” Mr Cooper’s statement noted.

“Today, the Speaker of our House of Assembly abruptly ended the business of the people in the House, reportedly because the Prime Minister and the member for Bamboo Town saw fit to conduct the business of the House in violation of the agreed protocols after a staff member of the House was infected with COVID-19.

“The House should not have met in that manner today and it was yet another embarrassing episode of a lost Minnis administration having no grasp as to how to do things in an orderly manner.

“It is disgraceful that any Speaker in an independent Bahamas in the middle of a pandemic has to bow and scrape to the executive in order to facilitate testing for staff and sanitisation of the House. We have long called for free and widespread testing and better contact tracing.

“The government has so bungled the pandemic response that it can now hardly provide free testing for exposed staff at the House of Assembly.”

Mr Cooper pinpointed the governing Free National Movement’s campaigning, which despite a rise in COVID-19 cases nationally, continues.

“The Prime Minister and the Minnis administration continue to flout the emergency orders with large-scale campaigning even though COVID cases continue to rise dramatically.

“The Prime Minister and the leader of government business’ clear violation of social distancing protocols and calling an exposed staff member who should be in isolation into work was reckless, thoughtless and yet another example of one set of rules for the people and another set of rules for themselves.

“We cannot effectively conduct legislative business amid this unhealthy discourse of ‘war’ between the prime minister and the speaker of the House because of what appear to be political differences after the speaker left the FNM.

“At the end of the day, the Prime Minister has to accept responsibility for this situation.

“It is of his own making, and he is to be condemned for it,” Mr Cooper said.

In a separate statement, PLP chairman Fred Mitchell described the situation as Speaker Moultrie “effectively preventing the government from reading and tabling a bill in advancement of its legislative agenda.”

Mr Mitchell also said: “In the process, the Speaker suggested that if the government wanted war, they will have a war. Needless to say, this created a legislative impasse and a potential constitutional crisis. The Speaker and the government could not agree.

“If perchance, the bill to be tabled was the annual budget, an impasse would create the threat of a government shutdown with disastrous consequences.

“Under the Westminster system of governance, when there is an impasse in Parliament that is preventing the government from advancing its legislative agenda, there is only one solution. The House is dissolved, a general election is called and the people give the government a new and fresh mandate.

“It then stands to reason that under the current circumstances, the prime minister has a critical decision to make. He must set the date for the next general election and seek a fresh governance mandate from the Bahamian people,” Mr Mitchell said.

The government did not respond to what happened in the House of Assembly up to press time.