PARAMARIBO- MP Bronto Somohardjo (PL) and his fellow MPs on Monday expressed their strong disapproval regarding the fact that 8 new members could not be installed last Friday due to the lack of quorum. Somohardjo presented a proposal aimed at addressing the issue.
He explained that new legislation would make it possible for the vacation seats in parliament would automatically go the next people in line. He strongly criticized the legislators from the VHP who form the opposition for refusing to cooperate as they did not sign the list of attendance. “What happened Friday was not a power struggle but a democratic disaster,” said MP Somohardjo (PL). MP Somohardjo and the others members from the coalition deemed it unacceptable that relatives and acquaintances of the new legislators had travelled all the way to the capital last Friday just to be told that the installations would be cancelled due to the lack of quorum. “In order to prevent this from happening again in the future I propose presenting a bill that makes it possible for a seat to automatically be filled when it becomes vacant because the wheels of democracy must not be kept from turning because of the mood swings of fellow legislators,” said MP Somohardjo. MP Asiskumar Gajadien, leader of the VHP faction in parliament, chose not to respond to the proposal of MP Somohardjo but he did explain that the VHP did not cooperate because it had objections regarding the manner in which the session had been organized.