W.I.N and Amanza Parliament Drama EXPLODES The Real Story

[00:00:00]As per the word on the street, former Guyana Movement Leader Amanza Walton-Desir, with her one seat, got a taste of cutthroat politics after she found herself not on any of the parliamentary special committees as was promised by the leader of the opposition Asot Michael Mohammed and the WIN party.

[00:00:22]Well, I have some video clips queued up for you where you'll hear from WIN and Amanza Walton-Desir. And the streets is talking. Okay, I know that's not proper English, but the streets is talking. And so we decided to get to the bottom of this.

[00:00:37]>> Over the last uh two days, um this issue about me uh being in parliamentary committees um has sort of blown up and then and been blown terribly out of proportion if you ask me.

[00:00:50]>> We need to find out exactly what happened. And so, here is the real story. We do have clips of WIN and Amanza and they're going to tell you exactly what happened. You're going to hear directly from the horse's mouth.

[00:01:04]Because as you know, social media is telling its own story. Anyway, happy happy Thursday. Thank you for tuning in to the final takeaway podcast episode 131. Yeah, we're making headways. We're heading for 200 episode 200. On that note, please consider subscribing and sharing this channel and our videos to help us get to 30,000 subscribers.

[00:01:30]30,000. That's our next milestone.

[00:01:33]That's our next goal. So please help us get to that milestone. And for all of our viewers, fans, and supporters who've already subscribed, we want to say a huge thank you. So help us get to the 30,000. We're literally 1,200 subs away from 30,000. Let's get it. So apparently, what had happened was Manzoor Nadir, who was the speaker of the National Assembly in Guyana, and who's also the chairperson of the Committee of Selection, blocked the opposition's attempt to get Amanza onto several special select committees, including the parliamentary sectoral committee on foreign relations, the Constitutional Reform Committee, and the Natural Resources Committee. Yes, that is exactly what had happened. So, forget all the talks you're hearing on the street, and let's tell you what exactly happened. In summary, when it comes to the number of people who voted for Amanza's political party in the last elections in 2025, and I mean the general and regional elections where she ran for president, in that elections, the number of people who voted for Amanza led to a situation where the math wasn't mathing. And therefore, a decision was made based on her party, the FGM, not having sufficient votes for Amanza to independently qualify for placement on the suggested committees, on those three committees. This decision came after Manzoor Nadir and Minister Gail Teixeira objected to Amanza being placed on those committees. How about we hear from the horse's mouth? Let's hear from Amanza herself.

[00:03:25]>> Really, this is not the application of principle, you know. This is the PPP using um using procedure, as it were, um to to impose pressure, you know, and and that is what that is.

[00:03:41]Because the selective application of numbers really does tell you all you need to know about about the PPP seat. Now, in in 2023 again, Gail to share move the nomination of Asha Kissoon.

[00:03:56]You remember Dr. Asha Kissoon, and um I think Asha had 244 votes.

[00:04:05]And she was entitled under the joint arrangement because remember they had a joint arrangement. This was not one slate. Each party had their own slate and they joined it. And so, under the arrangement, she was entitled to be there for 2021 days. And of course, the PPP used their majority again to vote her in, and no formula barred them >> Both WIN and the APNU parties were willing to transfer one or more of their parliamentary committee seats to Amanza, but that strategy backfired. It didn't work. Again, it's because the speaker and Minister Teixeira weren't having it.

[00:04:46]They blocked that attempt. According to a social media post by credible sources, the speaker ruled that quote, "Individual parties could not transfer those positions to another party." End quote. Once all parties received their seats after the elections, what that means is once the parliamentary seats were allocated to the parties that won one or more seats at the elections last year at the general and regional elections last year. And we all know Amanza got one seat. WIN got 16 seats, and if I'm not mistaken, the APNU got 13 or 12 seats. You guys feel free to tell me in the comment section if I got it wrong. Let's now hear from WIN. WIN's member of parliament, Tabitha Sarabo-Halley.

[00:05:35]>> It was our intention, both APNU and WIN, to uh seed some seats to the FGM, and uh but the speaker of the National Assembly, based on the formula, so guided that we were not able to do so.

[00:05:53]Now, it was at that point that uh MP Ganesh Mahipaul nominated Amanza Walton-Desir, and Wynn seconded that nomination because we agreed and believed that all uh parties uh that are in the National Assembly should have uh seat on the Parliamentary Management Committee. And so, we had no issue seconding that nomination.

[00:06:14]At that point, the speaker of the National Assembly and also the uh uh Gail Teixeira, uh both of them at that point basically asserted that uh Amanza Walton-Desir cannot be placed on any committee in the National Assembly uh because of the lack of votes that she received and the formula which suggested that um uh the formula which determined that she could not uh be placed on any committee.

[00:06:44]>> Well, you heard from Wynn. You heard from Amanza herself. So, all of what you're hearing about Wynn dissed Amanza, Wynn give her a raw deal, Wynn promised her to put her on these special committees, and look what Wynn did. Um hello. You heard from Amanza herself.

[00:07:07]That should put everything in perspective and dismiss all of the speculations. Hello. Well, how about you just tell us what you think in the comment section? I'm sure you have some interesting things to say. Tell me, do you think this was a planned strategy by the government to block Amanza? Because you guys know Amanza is quite vocal and you might add intensely critical of the People's Progressive Party administration. And she has a right. She is a politician.

[00:07:40]And there is the concept of freedom of speech. You shouldn't be penalized for your free speech, which is a constitutional right, conceptually in Guyana. She has always been vocal about how she feels about the administration. Unfortunately, in certain democracies, freedom of speech is just a concept. You'll get penalized for speaking up against the government in certain democracies, so-called democracies. Unfortunately, Guyana is not an exception to what I'm saying.

[00:08:14]Enough said. And guys, here's what's interesting. Even though Amanza walked away from the APNU party led by Aubrey Norton, APNU was still willing to put their differences aside and nominate Amanza for a position on one of the parliamentary committees. They were willing to give her one of their seats that one of their MPs could have held.

[00:08:37]They were willing to give her one seat.

[00:08:39]They were willing to help out Amanza regardless of what happened. Because you guys know Amanza voted for Azruddin Mohammed to be the opposition leader when there was so much uncertainty as to what was going to happen with Azruddin. Now, I don't think they needed Amanza's vote because obviously the math wasn't mathing for the APNU to do anything to block Mohammed from becoming the opposition leader. And I'm speaking about the special elections that was held to formally name him as the opposition leader. If all of Winds MPs voted for him, for Azruddin, then there was no problem because the APNU only had 13 votes with their 13 seats or 12 seats.

[00:09:25]And Amanza has one seat. So, Amanza decided, "Hey, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put my one seat to work. I'm going to make my one seat matter." And she voted for Afeena Now, that was a another issue and another accusation of cutthroat politics.

[00:09:44]However, we're not here to talk about cutthroat politics. That's a conversation for another day, but politics will be politicking, okay?

[00:09:53]Anyway, the APNU was willing to put her on one of the committees that one of their MPs could have been nominated for.

[00:10:01]They did that so that she could represent all of the opposition parties, not only WIM or the FGM or APNU. So, what we saw was an inclusive effort to get Amanza to be a part of the team. Anyway, let's put all of this into perspective. Here's the final takeaway. The controversy around Amanza Walton-Desir's exclusion from sitting on any of the parliamentary committees, as expected, has raised questions about how committee seats are actually assigned in Guyana. In Guyana's Parliament, under the standing orders of the National Assembly, the Committee of Selection is required to allocate committee seats using a proportional formula, proportional representation formula. The purpose of this rule is to ensure that parliamentary committees reflect the balance of political support that exists in the National Assembly.

[00:11:00]When that formula was applied in Parliament with Amanza's case, the ruling was that the Forward Guyana Movement did not qualify for a committee seat because it did not meet the required threshold for representation.

[00:11:19]As a result, the issue was not whether Walton-Desir was qualified to serve. The issue was whether her party qualified for a committee position under the allocation formula. So, it's basically what I said earlier in simple terms. The math wasn't mathing. Amanza simply did not have enough votes at the election to qualify her to be on any of the special committees in Parliament. Yes, she had enough votes to gain one seat, but not enough votes to be on any of the special committees. The Committee of Selection, which is led by Manzoor Nadir, decided that FGM was not entitled to a seat on the committees, meaning any nomination from that party could not be accepted.

[00:12:04]Nadir also prevented Win and the APNU from trading or giving one of their committee seats to Walton Desir. Now, supporters of Walton Desir argue that this outcome is unfair and that it limits representation for smaller parties. Yeah, no matter if you have one seat, you should be counted. You should have representation in Parliament, right? All that hard work you do and you still can't get on a special committee all because all because they say you only have one seat or you didn't have enough votes. Are you kidding me? That's NBS right there, honestly. That is some BS right there. However, the law is the law, but maybe it's time to reconsider the formula. In essence, what I'm saying is on the flip side of that, the argument is that the proportional representation system exists to ensure that committee membership mirrors the will of voters as expressed in the election results. This debate ultimately comes down to one bigger question.

[00:13:09]Should parliamentary committees be based strictly on mathematical representation or should every party with a seat in Parliament be guaranteed a place at the table, a place where decision-making occurs, a place within the special committees. Yeah.

[00:13:30]Well, guys, that's all for now. Do enjoy the rest of your day and let's meet again right here on the final takeaway podcast.