By Charminae George
The decision of members of the United Progressive Party (UPP) to leave their seats vacant both in yesterday’s Senate sitting and the House of Representatives on Tuesday has been defended by UPP chairperson Dame D Gisele Isaac.
In an interview on Observer AM yesterday, she said that the Senators’ absence was due to a lack of respect by the government towards the opposition.
“Why would the Senators go into there today when you have clearly said, we don’t want to hear from the UPP?” Dame Gisele stated.
The party is set to hold a public event on January 11 where elected opposition representatives and Senators will present their analysis of the 2024 budget.
The UPP chairperson reiterated that she felt the decision not to grant the opposition more time to prepare for the December 19 budget debate was unreasonable.
“We made it plain that one business day was insufficient, unfair, unreasonable, draconian, to expect us to come in and properly deliver,” Dame Gisele said.
She added that the opposition’s elected representatives were still in the process of preparing presentations on the day of the budget debate.
Following the budget presentation on December 15, the initial date proposed for the debate was December 18. After the opposition objected, saying they needed more time to prepare – demanding the standard timeframe of a week – the date was shifted to December 19.
The opposition, who had counter-proposed December 21, reiterated that they needed more time and stated that they would not attend the debate should it occur before their given date.
Following a vote, the budget debate was set for December 19 and, subsequently, the opposition was absent from the discussion.