Joinder parties begin discussions on sharing of seat

The joinder parties of A New and United Guyana (ANUG), Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) and The New Movement (TNM) have promised to utilise their single parliamentary seat to support legislation and policies aimed at bettering the lives of the Guyanese people.

This was relayed on Tuesday as the parties met for the first time to begin discussions on the way forward as it relates to the formula for the occupation of the seat.
Following the meeting, ANUG’s Jonathan Yearwood, LJP Presidential Candidate Lennox Shuman and TNM Presidential Candidate Dr Asha Kissoon addressed members of the media where they explained that the meeting was to make proposals to take back to their respective parties.
It was noted that the Executive of each party would meet and nominate a candidate to represent it for the duration of Parliament. Based on the initial agreement, the party with the most votes would have the first shot at occupying the seat.
The numbers coming out of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections indicated that of the trio, LJP secured the most votes with 2657 while ANUG and TMN secured 2313 and 244 respectively. This means that LJP goes first followed by ANUG and then TNM.
The duration of the terms, according to the joinder agreement, stipulates that LJP would occupy the seat for two years six months and 20 days while ANUG will serve for two years five months and TNM 80 days. However, a proposal was put forward at Tuesday’s meeting for the TNM’s terms to be increased to one year.
That proposal would have to be taken back to the respective parties’ Executive and agreed upon.
“The Liberty and Justice Party still have to meet to decide who would occupy that seat because there is still a lot of discussion as to how we are going to move forward as a party…what we discussed here today is we discussed setting up committees (for issues that may arise during our tenure) and it is addressed in our initial agreement as to how we would address that,” Shuman related.
Shuman, however, noted that the discussions are still ongoing and can be subjected to change so that each individual party equally benefit from the agreement.
Meanwhile, TNM’s Kissoon noted that the majority of the discussion revolved on how the joinder parties would use the seat to improve the lives of the Guyanese people.
“Whatever motions, policies or position are put forward, the three parties would set up a committee that would be deciding on these policies. So, it is not just one person sitting in the seat, it is all three of us working as a unit to put forward policies and motions that would be in the benefit of the Guyanese people.
“We had discussions among the joinder tonight and the order of sitting in that seat is not written in stone…proposals were made to change up that order a bit but before that decision is made we would have to meet as an Executive and come up with a final decision,” Kissoon related.
She said that at the end of the day, the joinder list’s main prerogative is working in the interest of all Guyanese.
ANUG’s Yearwood told reporters that the joinder parties are all committed to abiding by their agreement.
Yearwood noted that in the interest of furthering the benefits of all Guyanese, the parties are willing to act as a broker between the Government and main Opposition.
The party has an agreement in place to set up a committee to deal with issues that may arise during their tenure in the National Assembly. (G2)