Eustace: ‘If I have gaps in economic management the PM has miles…’

Leader of the Opposition Arnhim Eustace has dismissed claims regarding his lack of knowledge of Parliamentary procedure as ‘a lot of nonsense’.{{more}}

Eustace, speaking last Monday on the New Democratic Party (NDP) New Times radio program, responded to a number of letters and articles in the newspapers of Friday, March 9, that he said accused him, of not knowing when no confidence motions could be brought in the House of Assembly.

Referring to a SEARCHILGHT article of March 16, in which Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves stated that the Opposition Leader has ‘knowledge gaps on basic issues of governance’, and pointed out that a no confidence motion can be brought against the government at any time, Eustace said that his comments in the article of March 9 were not based on the opposition bringing such motion on March 26, 2012.

“When I was making the comments… I was referring specifically to those things we do on the third sitting every year.”

“We weren’t planning on having a no confidence motion on the 26th of March. That doesn’t mean that we can’t have it at some time. I was telling the press how they always try to block any motion that we try to bring in the time when we are allowed to bring the motions definitively, but that does not prevent us from bringing a motion of no confidence at anytime that we please.”

“They have to try and twist and turn these things; the point is the New Democratic Party had not made a decision… and this is part of the stupidness about some of these articles that are appearing.”

Eustace pointed out that it was the Prime Minister who initiated the talk of a no confidence motion at a press confidence he held on March 5.

He said that he did not take the statements made by Dr. Gonsalves with any seriousness.

“If I have gaps in economic management, the Prime Minister obviously has miles in economic management, because this country has gone to the dogs with four years of negative growth in this economy; never as much as in the history of our country.

“The Opposition moved from three to seven seats and they moved from 12 to eight; so what is that saying about confidence of people?”

While the NDP leader, in the March 6 interview with SEARCHLIGHT, did not indicate that the Opposition had any intention of bringing a No Confidence motion against the government, he did state that the March 26 sitting of the House was the only time in the year in which a motion could be brought.

“The Meeting of the 26th of March which is scheduled, we have a right, if we want to bring a no confidence motion, because that’s the day, the one day of the year when the opposition can bring a motion… its only one day in a year we are allowed to bring a motion… yeah that’s the rule in the parliament; in the third sitting of Parliament, the opposition can bring its own motion….”

The Opposition is expected, however, to bring forward its Social Redemption Charter to be debated in Parliament on Monday, March 26.