Opposition Leader Says Acting G-G’s Position Forced a Walk-Out  

Barrow said that when he called the Governor-General’s office on Friday evening to follow-up on his communication over the substitution of Senators Michael Peyrefitte and Beverly Williams, the employee at the office acknowledged receipt of his notification but did not indicate at that point that there was an issue. The Governor-General, Froyla Tzalam, is not in office, and Stewart Leslie is acting in that position. Barrow said Leslie’s decision forced his only other senator to walk out of the proceedings.

 

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“My senators walked out, but Antonio Herrera, who was going to act as Lead Senator today in place of Michael Peyrefitte, walked out in protest. I spoke to the President of the Senate, who was gracious to call me very early this morning, but obviously all she could do is follow up with the GG to see if there are any instruments she cannot dictate to the GG how to proceed. And those are some of the things that we do need to establish. And she did say she would like to sit with myself, the Leader of Government Business and the Leader of Opposition Business and other stakeholders so that we could come up with procedures. If there was a problem at three and there were clarifications that needed to be made, you just don’t say, Oh, I’m not doing this. You call the G-G. You call me if I need to send different instruments. There have been times where I may have  quoted, they had an issue with the part of the Constitution. I quoted the GG’s office has been,  gracious enough to say please correct. the section that you’ve quoted so that we can proceed. So I’m not laying this at the foot of the actual GG. I’m talking about the Cab Sec, the political hack Stuart Leslie. What I’m saying is that three o’clock he should have contacted the AG. How do we proceed? We need to get this done.”