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Assirvaden Expelled For The Second Time In Two Sessions

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A request to “withdraw from the chamber” to Patrick Assirvaden was made by Speaker Sooroojdev Phokeer. This is a second expulsion in eight days. He earned his expulsion with his “I have one more question Mister Speaker”.

Labour Party (PTr) MP Patrick Assirvaden wanted to ask a supplementary question on the CEB to Energy Minister Joe Lesjongard. But he was turned down by the Speaker reminding him “That doesn’t matter, you should know your Standing Orders”. The Speaker had already announced the next question. Patrick Assirvaden was thus persistent, an act that was taken by the speaker as an affront: “You are fighting a Speaker. You should know your Standing Order…You are playing with fire… The speaker goes by the Standing Order… If you don’t know your Standing Order, it is not my problem…”. The MP for Cave/Phoenix left the chamber but other Labour MPs followed him. Last week he was expelled after a question about the suspension of an MBC journalist to Curepipe / Midlands MP Kenny Dhunnoo.

When the debate resumed, after lunch, the Speaker went back on his decision to expel Patrick Assirvaden last week. He explained that he read an article in the l’Express in which it was stated that “the expulsion of Patrick Assirvaden is intriguing” and that “nobody understands the reasons for this expulsion”. The Speaker returned to the incidents of last week. He explained that the PTr President did not want to give the floor to MP Kenny Dhunnoo, who had raised a point of order. He also said that on no less than 3 occasions, he asked Patrick Assirvaden to withdraw a sentence he had said. But he would not listen. Better still, Patrick Assirvaden is said to have said, at one point, that he (the Speaker) is protecting the MP Dhunnoo. Sooroojdev Phokeer said this tatamounts to casting doubts over the Speaker.

Patrick Assirvaden told the press he was “very angry”, saying he was “entitled to ask Minister Joe Lesjongard a supplementary question on the situation on Terra, Energy and Bagasse”. He believes the Speaker does not appreciate the Labour Party. “The Opposition is paid to be in opposition, we have a responsibility as opposition to bring out the truth. He called his expulsion “arbitrary and unjustified” and the Speaker “a bad Goal Keeper”. He wondered whether, “with these ways of treating parliament”, one day Mauritius would become like Sri Lanka where ministers, and “not only” ministers, have to flee the public for their safety.

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