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Ke­jan Haynes

Leader of gov­ern­ment busi­ness Bar­ry Padarath has ac­cused the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) of po­lit­i­cal hypocrisy, re­ject­ing claims by Op­po­si­tion Chief Whip Mar­vin Gon­za­les that the Gov­ern­ment abused par­lia­men­tary rules to shut down de­bate in the Low­er House last week.

Padarath is­sued the re­sponse af­ter Gon­za­les wrote to House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh, al­leg­ing that the Gov­ern­ment ma­nip­u­lat­ed Stand­ing Or­der 52(1) to pre­ma­ture­ly end de­bate on a pri­vate mem­ber’s mo­tion brought by Laven­tille West MP Ka­reem Mar­celle. The in­ci­dent prompt­ed Op­po­si­tion MPs to walk out last Fri­day, with Gon­za­les de­scrib­ing it as a “dan­ger­ous de­vel­op­ment in par­lia­men­tary democ­ra­cy.”