President wants to monitor parliament closely- says selection was against parliamentary conventions.

Georgetown- President Donald Ramotar is upset that the opposition has used it's 1 seat majority to sideline Government's nominee Ralph Ramkarran and elect two of their own as speaker and deputy speaker of the house. In a statement released last evening the President said  “Today’s (Thursday’s) occurrence in the National Assembly is disappointing as the APNU/AFC opposition squandered an excellent opportunity for us to usher in an era of enhanced political cooperation and consensus.” Ramotar said as president, he had hoped that the elections of a Speaker and Deputy Speaker for the National Assembly would have resulted from genuine dialogue rather than the product of some pre-arranged deal between the two opposition parties. “The APNU/AFC collaboration also goes against the convention in parliamentary democracies where the governing party with the largest number of votes and seats secures the Speaker of the National Assembly. This gross violation of an established convention is not a healthy development in this new dispensation,” the president said. The combined opposition, A Partnership For national Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC),  elected attorneys Raphael Trotman and Debra Backer as Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively .