Pressure Mounts on Speaker: FGM Petitions Clerk Over 94-Day Legislative Blackout and Inaccessible Website

By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News|

GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – The Forward Guyana Movement (FGM) has significantly ramped up its campaign to break the ongoing legislative freeze, formally petitioning the Clerk of the National Assembly on Wednesday to compel the Speaker to immediately reconvene the 13th Parliament.

The strategic move follows formal dispatches sent by the party to multiple international bodies earlier this week, as the political opposition, local third parties, and the Western diplomatic corps align in their condemnation of a legislative hiatus that is now approaching 100 days.

The Constitutional Petition to the Clerk

FGM Parliamentary Representative Amanza Walton-Desir confirmed that the formal petition delivered to the Clerk focuses strictly on the total paralysis of the National Assembly. The party argues that the government’s refusal to hold sittings directly undermines the constitutional principle of representative democracy.

Under Article 9 of the Constitution of Guyana, sovereignty belongs to the people and must be actively exercised through their elected representatives. FGM contends that by keeping the doors of the Parliament Building locked, the executive branch has effectively silenced the voice of the electorate.

“Parliament has not met for a far longer period than we are allowed by the Standing Orders to be in recess,” Walton-Desir stated defensively. “Standing Order 9 explicitly permits a fixed parliamentary recess only from August 10 to October 10. That period has obviously not commenced, yet the house has been in an unscheduled, unexplained hiatus for over 90 days.”

The Disappearance of the Parliament Website

Compounding the opposition’s frustrations is the sudden, unexplained digital blackout of the official Parliament of Guyana website. Walton-Desir revealed that critical public transparency portals have become completely inaccessible over the last few weeks.

“On the website, you should be able to track the state of questions asked to ministers, view the official Order Papers, and review the Notice Papers,” the MP explained. “Now, you can’t access any of that. This digital shutdown is not an accident; it is a deliberate move to keep the public completely uninformed while critical opposition questions regarding state expenditure remain unanswered.”

“A Full-Blown Dictatorship”

The FGM representative did not mince her words regarding the political implications of the prolonged freeze, drawing an unfavorable geopolitical comparison to neighboring Venezuela.

“Even our neighbor Venezuela, despite its intense internal crises and international issues in the recent past, has seen its parliament meeting frequently to debate national affairs,” Walton-Desir pointed out. She argued that the current administration’s actions point toward the consolidation of a “full-blown dictatorship” that uses administrative maneuvers to completely bypass constitutional oversight.

The MP reiterated her urgent weekend call for all opposition Members of Parliament to launch sustained public protests directly outside the Parliament Building until a sitting is formally gazetted.

Diplomatic and Multi-Party Realignment

The FGM’s escalating pressure has triggered a wave of cross-partisan and international support in the capital:

• The Alliance For Change (AFC): On Wednesday, the AFC issued a strongly worded press statement, heavily condemning the legislative standstill and demanding the immediate resumption of sittings to address pressing national security and economic concerns.
• The ABCEU Diplomatic Corps: In a major development, the diplomatic missions of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and the European Union (ABCEU) formally added their collective voices to the call, urging the immediate reconvening of the National Assembly to preserve democratic governance.

With the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and the Speaker of the National Assembly holding the joint statutory authority to call a sitting, the opposition’s petition to the Clerk puts the ball squarely in the government’s court to justify why the gates to the nation’s highest debating forum remain closed.