Newly elected Speaker of the House of Assembly, Jomo Thomas, has urged lawmakers to honour the electorate.
Thomas was elected unopposed as Speaker of the House of Assembly at the opening of the 10th Parliament last week.
He said that the deliberations of the national assembly until the next elections “are critically important.
“We are going to deal with policies and laws and legislation that will help to take our country forward. And I expect that we will do that in a manner that is pleasing not only to our selves but to the persons who sit in this hall and even more so to the persons who are listening to us on the outside, because they are the ones who brought us here; they are the ones who put us here by their votes, and I want us to do honour to them,” said Thomas, who was a senator in and deputy speaker of the last Parliament.
“It is an important responsibility to serve. And I am absolutely confident that all of the people who we elected and those we selected will take their responsibility in a way that is befitting of the job that we all hold,” he said.
“I can guarantee you that I would take my responsibilities to the best of my ability, and I understand the standing orders, I understand the rules, I understand the Constitution of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and I have a good knowledge of all of the politicians who are sitting in front of me and those who have departed. So I will exercise my authority to do justice to the confidence which this Parliament has placed in me,” he told lawmakers.
Thomas contested the Dec. 9 general elections on a Unity Labour Party ticket, but failed in his effort to unseat Nigel “Nature” Stephenson of the New Democratic Party, who was elected to a second term as MP for South Leeward.
Thomas, a lawyer, replaces former speaker, Hendrick Alexander, who came to the post in 2001, when the ULP was first elected to office.
There are some things I like about Jomo, but he has often shown himself to be really stupid. Glad he does not hold an important role in government.