The sitting of the House Representatives was brought to an abrupt adjournment on Tuesday afternoon, when members of the governing majority (JLP), led by Prime Minister Andrew Holness walked out of the sitting.
The quorum for the House is 16 members, and with the opposition People's National Party (PNP) having only 14 MPs, the Speaker was forced to adjourn the sitting.
The walkout occurred towards the end of Opposition Leader Mark Golding's contribution to the Budget Debate, when he questioned the propriety of the Prime Minister's wife, Juliet Holness, being the Speaker.
The Head of Parliament being the spouse of the Head of Government "really does not sit well with the tradition that the Speaker must act independently of the government of the day," he declared, to howls of protest from government members.
Calling the comments "low and desperate", the Prime Minister was the first to leave his seat, followed by the other members of government.
But the cross talk did not end with the walk out as Member of Parliament Everald Warmington returned to the chamber and began trading barbs with the opposition members who shouted for him to leave.
Deputy Speaker Heroy Clarke was forced to adjourn the sitting after government members failed to return within five minutes.
The parliamentary opposition has described the walkout by government members as unprecedented and distasteful.
"We are in the middle of a Budget Debate and the [Opposition] Leader was on his feet speaking. We have never experienced anything like this before," Leader of Opposition Business Phillip Paulwell suggested, adding that it would have "implications for the conduct of the remainder of the debate".
But Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Horace Chang argued that government members did the right thing by walking out during the Opposition Leader's budget presentation.
Mr. Golding's comments related to Mrs. Holness were "abusive" and "discriminatory", Dr. Chang contended, noting that "unless he apologises, he shouldn't be allowed to finish his speech".
Prior to the comments that prompted the walk out, the Opposition Leader had blasted the government over a number of decisions, describing them as a slap in the face of good governance.
Mr. Golding asserted that since the Andrew Holness administration took office in 2016, no less than eight Government Ministers have been forced to resign or have otherwise been sanctioned for a range of serious breaches, and the country continues to rank poorly on international corruption indices.
He added that the move in 2020 to take away the chairmanship of most parliamentary committees from the opposition has weakened that mechanism of holding the government to account.
.png)
All feeds
