Stabroek News
May 17, 2001

The National Assembly will meet next Thursday to begin debate on the President's speech to Parliament earlier this month and it is expected that a number of the amendments to the constitution deferred from the last Parliament would be tabled.

In the ongoing dialogue process between President Bharrat Jagdeo and PNC REFORM Leader Desmond Hoyte, it was agreed that the outstanding amendments would be enacted within a month of the National Assembly being convened. The National Assembly was convened on May 4 and the inaugural session was addressed by President Jagdeo.

The decision was taken on Tuesday at a meeting between Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud, and the representatives of the parliamentary parties at the Public Buildings.

Also at the meeting were PNC/R's chief whip, Lance Carberry, The United Force's Manzoor Nadir, ROAR's Ravi Dev and GAP/WPA's Sheila Holder.

Carberry confirmed that the meeting had a preliminary discussion on the joint mechanism to manage the affairs of the parliament. The establishment of a system to steer parliamentary business was another of the agreements reached in the Jagdeo/Hoyte dialogue.

Joint management of parliament was a Herdmanston Accord measure, which was to designed to give the opposition parties a better opportunity for questioning ministers and having their motions discussed.

Stabroek News understands that the issue will be discussed again next Friday at another meeting to be convened by Persaud at which the various proposals as to how the mechanism should work would be explored.