Opposition Condemns Acting GG’s Refusal to Sign Substitute Senators’ Instruments

The Opposition has come out swinging at the Cabinet Secretary, Stuart Leslie, in his capacity as Acting Governor-General, over his decision to not sign the instruments of appointment for the United Democratic Party. Leslie’s decision not to sign the document effectively invalidated the participation of the two substitute U.D.P. senators who were appointed by the Opposition last Friday. At a press briefing today, Opposition Leader, Moses “Shyne” Barrow, explained what happened.

 

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“As we all know, there are different, circumstances that arise, and so you have to make temporary appointments. On Friday, temporary appointments were made. The letters of appointment were sent to the governor general’s office. The Governor-General office responded. Good receipt acknowledged there was no problem. There was no objection. Oh, we don’t have enough time. I called the Governor-General’s office on Monday at midday and Miss Casey confirmed that the instruments were prepared and ready to be signed, and there was no problem. Then I get an email a few hours later saying that due to circumstances beyond their control, the instruments would not be sent to the National Assembly. So I called Stewart Leslie and he says, Oh, he needs legal advice because of this and because of that, and I tried to clarify the matter for him and he said, okay, he’ll try to get it done in the morning. And I reached out to the President of the Senate who said she would follow up to see whether or not the Instruments came in, and my temporary senators went to the Senate and were refused to be seated saying that the Acting G-G refuses to sign the instruments.”