The main opposition New National Party (NNP) says it will boycott Tuesday’s sitting of Parliament saying it was doing so ‘after careful review of the troubling pattern of unacceptable behaviour and blatant disrespect demonstrated’ by the government.
The NNP said it will also not be attending the November 6 sitting of the Senate.
The opposition party said that the last parliamentary sitting last Tuesday ‘was chaotic’ with Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell scolding ‘the Speaker and unilaterally dictated the adjournment of the House.
‘It came after serious procedural failures, with members receiving documents late, a clear breach of parliamentary norms and respect for the institution.’
The NNP said that ‘the adjourned date for the sitting of the House was unilaterally dictated to the Speaker by the Government side without consultation with members of the Opposition or respectful adherence to established parliamentary norms and practices.
‘The leader of the opposition’s request for appropriate consultation on the date was ultimately trivialized,’ it added.
The NNP said that the opposition members’ absence from the Parliament on this occasion is an act of principle.
‘As the Opposition in Parliament, we stand firm in protest against the intolerable erosion of our democratic parliamentary norms, the continued shameful attempts to marginalise the official Parliamentary Opposition, and the creeping authoritarianism that has no place in Grenada’s Parliament.
‘We cannot condone a process that mocks the very principles we as members of the House were elected to uphold,’ it added.
Prime Minister Mitchell is due to make a statement in Parliament on Tuesday regarding a request from the United States to temporarily install a radar at the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA) and the deployment of US military assets on or near Grenada.