by Linda Straker
- Clerk to Houses of Parliament sent written apology to Office of Leader of Opposition
- Original programme circulated for ceremonial opening of 11th Parliament omitted names of Opposition MPs
- Corrected and reprinted programme disseminated by ceremony’s conclusion
Andrew Augustine, Clerk to the Houses of Parliament has sent a written apology to the Office of the Leader of the Opposition Dr Keith Mitchell and all other opposition Members of Parliament (MPs). He expressed regret for the unfortunate occurrence that caused the omission of names of all elected MPs from the original programme circulated for the ceremonial opening of the 11th Parliament on Wednesday, 31 August 2022.
“The Office of the Houses of Parliament noted the error of omission of Members of the Opposition on the initial programme for the Ceremonial Opening of Parliament. This was rectified during the ceremony,” said a news release from the Clerk on Thursday, 1 September 2022.
“The Office of the Clerk has provided a written apology to the Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition and, by extension to all the Opposition members. The Office has further provided an apology to members of the Executive and all other Parliamentarians who may have been so affected by the error,” the release added.
The programme, reprinted with the names of the 15 Members of Parliament was disseminated by the time the ceremony concluded. By that time, most of the attendees and invitees had already left the Parliament building in Mt Wheldale.
While the Office of the Leader of the Opposition has confirmed receiving a letter from the Clerk, as of Thursday morning, Dr Mitchell was yet to personally receive and open it because he was not scheduled to be in office.
In an interview following the ceremony, the Opposition Leader who previously served as Prime Minister described the omission of elected Opposition Members of Parliament on the original programme as “sad, strange, and not a good thing.”
“That is a very strange one. I mean, I do not understand it, maybe you need to talk to the government side about that; the document is there every year. I don’t understand how it could have been left out, it is unfortunate, but I will not cast any aspersion. It’s sad and not a good thing,” Dr Mitchell said.
Following the 23 June General Election, the New National Party (NNP) the incumbent after winning the 2013 and 2018 elections with 15 seats, won only 6 constituency seats. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) won 9 seats, forming the current government.
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