Outameni Protest: Opposition walks out of House after PM refuses to answer questions

BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com  Wednesday, November 26, 2014   

OPPOSITION parliamentarians walked out of the House of Representatives yesterday in protest against the Government's handling of the controversial Outameni property purchase and the refusal of the prime minister to answer questions tabled on the issue.

Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, Andrew Holness

The walk-out brought an early end to the meeting of the legislature, setting back some issues including the closing of the debate on reparations.

The Government sought to recover the agenda by going ahead with the opening of the debate on three bills seeking to replace the Judicial Committee of the United Kingdom Privy Council with the regional Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). But after a large group of students who were visiting to watch the proceedings left the gallery with their teachers, the writing was on the wall.

Leader of the House Phillip Paulwell called it quits after Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller opened the debate on three bills, and House Speaker Michael Peart adjourned the sitting.

In the meantime, the Opposition invited the press to a briefing in its conference room at Gordon House, at which its leader, Andrew Holness, warned that the protest would not end there. He said that he would widen it to add areas of collaboration between Government and Opposition, including the Partnership for Jamaica, launched in July 2013.

The partnership is a programme designed to ensure the country's stabilisation, growth with equity and sustainable development initially over the period 2013-2016. It gives special focus to fiscal consolidation, rule of law, ease of doing business, employment creation, and energy diversification and conservation. more