Joinder parties’ Parliamentary seat dispute: GECOM Chair assures of intervention on removal of Asha Kissoon

Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, has committed to resolving the ongoing controversy involving the presence of Dr Asha Kissoon sitting in the National Assembly in a seat she has been occupying beyond the six-month term allotted to her party under the Joinder Agreement.
According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of the Joinder List, Dr Kissoon’s party, The New Movement (TNM), was entitled to occupy the opposition seat in the National Assembly for 91 days. That timeline has ended since November 2023, but Dr Kissoon continues to occupy the parliamentary seat in a move that has sparked criticisms from some quarters, including A New and United Party (ANUG), whose turn it is to serve in the House based on the Joinder Agreement.

While GECOM had previously distanced itself from the matter, saying that it has “absolutely no authority” to remove Dr Kissoon from the National Assembly, Justice Singh told reporters after being grilled at a press conference on Friday that there is a way for the Commission to intervene.
“There is another step that I’m thinking of, which I don’t want to divulge here. There is another step… That step would be addressed in a short time from now,” the GECOM Chair assured.
It has further been noted that this matter has been on the agenda of the seven-member Guyana Elections Commission, but has not been discussed.
On March 2, 2020, TNM, ANUG, and the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) had crafted a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in which it was agreed that they would merge the votes earned by them if those were sufficient to earn them a seat in Parliament, and they would share occupation of that seat in Parliament on a rotational basis that is proportionate to the votes each had earned.
At those elections, the number of votes secured by the three joinder parties were: 2657 by LJP – the most votes secured by a joinder party; 2313 by ANUG, and 244 by TNM. Based on the Joinder Agreement, each party was entitled to occupy the shared seat for a specific period.
The stipulated duration of the terms for each party was: two years, six months and 20 days for the LJP; two years five months for ANUG, and 91 days for TNM.
The three parties had previously committed to acting as a broker between the Government and the main Opposition, but during Friday’s press conference, GECOM’s Legal Officer Attorney Kurt Da Silva explained that this arrangement is not catered for in the Representation of the People’s Act (ROPA) at Section 97, which speaks to Joinder List. According to Da Silva, the seat is awarded to the party within the Joinder that has the highest number of votes.
“So, if it’s one seat, the party with the most votes gets that seat…for the entire period [of the parliament],” he confirmed.
As GECOM Legal Officer, he noted, “When [LJP Leader Lennox] Shuman resigned, the list that [the replacement] name needed to come from was the LJP list.”
Questioned why GECOM had never intervened to address the situation, the GECOM Chair reminded that the issue had never been discussed.
“That matter went before the commission, and they said nothing,” Justice Singh posited.
After the 2020 Election, Shuman took occupation of the single merger seat, which he held for two and one-half years before honouring his commitment and resigning from the National Assembly in March 2023.
Dr Kissoon was then sworn-in as a Member of Parliament in April 2023, and was also elected as Deputy Speaker – a position Shuman had held.
Based on the MoU signed, the TNM Leader should have resigned from the National Assembly in November, 2023, thereby allowing ANUG to commence its parliamentary tenure, but this has not been done.
Back in March, ANUG had said Dr Kissoon had, on one occasion, indicated via a “verbal and informal promise” that she would vacate the seat on February 29, 2024; but three months late, she had reneged on that commitment by refusing to relinquish the seat.
At a press conference in March, ANUG Executives had called the TNM Leader’s actions undemocratic and a breach of trust; and the
Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, had explained to this publication in March that Parliament did not have the power to remove Dr Kissoon in the wake of these events.
“They don’t have power to remove her. The Head of her List can ask that she be removed; she could resign if she’s found guilty in a court of law for some criminal offence, and citizenship is another one. Things like that. But we cannot remove her otherwise,” he explained.
Dr Kissoon has not spoken on the issue, and continues to serve as both a Parliamentarian and as the Deputy Speaker. (G8)