Dr Asha Kissoon elected Deputy Speaker

…Nandranie Coonjah sworn-in as MP, replaces Nigel Dharamlall

Leader of The New Movement (TNM), Dr Asha Kissoon, was on Thursday elected Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly.
The resignation of Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) leader Lenox Shuman from Parliament had left the position of Deputy Speaker vacant, paving the way for a new appointee. As such, Dr Asha Kissoon was nominated by Governance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Gail Teixeira, and she scooped up a majority of 33 votes during the motion. The other contender, Dawn Hastings-Williams, nominated by the Opposition APNU/AFC, was defeated.
“We have the majority of persons voting in favour of Dr Asha Kissoon to be elected as Deputy Speaker,” Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, announced.
Dr Kissoon took her seat in the National Assembly in April, replacing Shuman as an MP. She is expected to serve in the House for 80 days, in accordance with the agreement between her party, LJP, and A New and United Guyana (ANUG).

The three joinder parties have collectively won a single seat in the 65-seat National Assembly following the 2020 General and Regional Elections. The duration of the terms, according to the joinder agreement, had stipulated that LJP, in the form of Shuman, would occupy the seat for two years, six months, and 20 days, while ANUG would serve for two years and five months, and TNM for 80 days.
The three parties had previously committed to acting as a broker between the Government and the main Opposition.
The process for replacing an MP involves the National Assembly writing to the head of the party list to whom the seat belongs, once its occupant has submitted a formal resignation. The head of the list is tasked with informing GECOM which party candidate’s name to extract and submit to the National Assembly. After assuming her seat, Kissoon had vowed to be an agent of change in politics.

New MP
Former Regional Vice Chairperson for Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Nandranie Coonjah, has officially been sworn-in as an MP, replacing former Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall as a Parliamentarian. Coonjah took her oath in the presence of the Speaker of the National Assembly and other Parliamentarians.
Coonjah, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Region Two candidate and a longstanding Commissioner on the Women and Gender Equality Commission, was selected after the party wrote to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to extract her name from the geographic list of candidates. She takes the seat after Nigel Dharamlall resigned as both Local Government Minister and MP, following allegations of rape that were levelled against him.
While the Minister within the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Anand Persaud, has been carrying out Dharamlall’s ministerial functions, Coonjah has been identified as Dharamlall’s parliamentary replacement.
On July 13, the House Speaker had received the respective letter from Dharamall, informing of his resignation as Member of Parliament. In relation to the allegations, the complainant declined to pursue the matter. The victim had given a “no further action statement” to investigators in the presence of one of her parents and a representative of the Child Care and Protection Agency.
This had led to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shalimar Ali Hack, SC, advising the Police not to proceed with the case. The DPP, in her advice, stated that the victim’s decision to withdraw the complaint was not influenced by anyone, and that same was done in her best interest.
Based on this new development, the Guyana Police Force (GPF) had revealed that “the Director of Public Prosecutions concluded that, in the absence of the victim’s complaint, there is no legal provision for the Police to proceed with the matter.” (G12)