Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves denounced the Opposition NDP’s verbal abuse of new Clerk of the House of Assembly Deborah Charles on Thursday.
The selection of Mrs. Charles as Clerk of the House, according to Opposition Leader Godwin Friday, does not satisfy the appearance of impartiality and constitutional legality.
“Mrs. Deborah Charles is unequivocally a political activist within the leadership of the Unity Labour Party (ULP), which is the governing party. The ULP’s record of manipulating the processes of the House of Assembly over the years it has held a majority of seats there is widely regarded with justification as being cavalier at best and downright abusive at worst”, Friday stated.
However, in his response to the Opposition Leader, Gonsalves remarked that the objections are ingrained in the brains of individuals in the opposition and actually does not exist in reality.
“Madam Speaker, there are two grounds on which the Honourable Leader Of the Opposition objected, and they are interconnected, but for analytic purposes, let’s separate them. He said that because the current Clerk of the House was once a candidate, once a member of this House, and a parliamentary secretary, on that account, she would be partisan”.
“I Listen to him very carefully on the second ground, he said, because of the fact that she was once a senator, once a candidate, and that in their mind, they have a fear. So it is something with their mind, not with Deborah Charles”.
“When you say you fear her, you fear what would happen. You are speaking, Madam Speaker, towards the core, the essence, the integrity of this woman as a mother, as someone who was a teacher, molded children, and a principal of a school, and on no occasion can anyone say that there was evidence in her of malice, spite, or bad-mindedness, and the Public Service Commission must have been satisfied in her integrity and in her capacity to do this job, which is why they appointed her”.
According to Gonsalves, the clerk is the accounting officer for the House of Assembly, which means she is in charge of dealing with the allocations made by Parliament, and she is required to present accounts to all relevant state institutions, including the office of the Director of Audit.
“I want to say, Madam Speaker, that to question her underhand or adversely to the interest of parliamentary democracy or to the opposition that she would not be even handed is to question her integrity and her character and accordingly subject her to verbal abuse as happened here today”, Gonsalves said.
Several members of the then-NDP government, including Nolwyn McDowall and Sir David Jack, ran for elections and were later chosen speakers during Gonsalves’ period in opposition.
Gonsalves said he never once objected to there appointment nor did he ever thought any of them would have done anything to undermine parliamentary democracy.
