Gaston Browne’s failure to share unredacted Alfa Nero sale documents with all members of parliament, providing them only to the speaker, was “totally against the rules,” according to former Speaker Gisele Isaac.
After an inexplicable wait that dragged the country through the mud, Browne provided the documents to Speaker Osbert Frederick, his political ally, last week. He did not share them with the other lawmakers, according to the Antigua Observer.
This is “totally against the rules” of Parliament, Isaac says.
Two weeks earlier, local media reported that Browne said Isaac would “die a horrible death.”
In the words of the Observer, “Isaac added the documents should have been laid out before the House shortly after the sale of the yacht.”
“These documents will be given to the Speaker of the House, and because we have the unreacted versions, we will not circulate to each member for any mischief to be created,” Browne said.
“But I’m sure that if any member of the Parliament would like to have access to these documents that the Speaker of the House will use his discretion and allow you to view whatever.”
“So people are supposed to believe what you say, but not have the so-called privilege of seeing what you say? That was totally wrong; that was totally against the rules. But the Speaker is a seasoned senator. The Standing Orders are really the same for both Houses of Parliament. He ought to have known — and I want to believe that he knew ahead of time — that the prime minister was going to do this and say this. But this is Parliament; you are members of the House of Representatives; everybody in there represents a constituency,” said Isaac, according to the Observer.
