Madam Speaker,
In keeping with Section 20 Subsection (ix) of the Legislature Assembly (Procedure) Rules 1976, I rise to move a motion relating to a matter of privilege in this Honourable House.
Madam Speaker, as you are aware such a motion may be moved without notice because of their critical importance to protecting the rights of individual members of the House and in particular the rights of the minority.
The matter, which I must draw to your attention Mme Speaker, is the abuse of parliamentary procedure in this Honourable House that effectively undermines both the letter and spirit of the Anguilla Constitution.
Madam Speaker at the last sitting of this House on October 25, 2013, you allowed a sitting of the House to be conducted without properly notifying the Members of the Opposition and in fact one of the Members of the Opposition was not notified at all. As a consequence the Members of the Opposition staged their disapproval by boycotting that sitting of the House.
Madam Speaker, the absence of the Opposition was further affected by the unfortunate absence of the Elected Member for West End from the Government side of the House who was reported to be ill. This unfortunate situation led to the absence of a quorum.
What is most disturbing Madam Speaker is that you allowed the House to proceed without the quorum and to add insult to injury you granted a request for the suspension of the rules of procedure thus permitting all three readings of Bills on the Order Paper to be read and passed.
Madam Speaker, we the Members of the Opposition consider this to be a flagrant disregard for the rules of procedure and established practices of good governance and parliamentary democracy.
In the circumstances,
BE IT RESOLVED Madam Speaker, that you apologize to the Members of the Opposition; to this Honourable House and the people of Anguilla for this abuse of power and provide us with firm assurance that the Opposition will be properly notified in keeping with the Legislative Assembly (Procedure) Rules 1976 Section 2 (1) and in particular that you will be guided by the Constitution and settled law as set out in the judgment in Civil Suit Nos. 99 & 101 between Hubert B. Hughes vs. Leroy Rogers regarding the matter of quorum.
BE IT ALSO RESOLVED, that this House obeys the spirit and letter of the Law so that no further Legislation is passed without a quorum being satisfied.
Madam Speaker, we would like you to understand that this is not a frivolous motion. It touches the very heart of proper parliamentary procedure and threatens the fabric of our democratic society. Madam Speaker given the nature of that occurrence it is conceivable that controversial Bills can be passed in the House in the future with only two members in attendance. In the circumstances the Members of the Opposition request a strong statement from you on this matter in the absence of which we have every intention to protest further in the future.
Editors Note: Mr. Roger’s was interrupted during delivery of the statement and consequently was unable to do so in full.
