Speaker of the House Dr. Kendal Major yesterday rebutted claims from the opposition that he did not adhere to parliamentary procedure when he named and suspended Free National Movement Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis from the House of Assembly last week.

On Sunday, Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn said Major did not follow parliamentary procedure when he suspended Minnis for two consecutive sittings.

"I think the member is mistaken," Major said.

"You can argue that technically that I didn't follow the letter of the rule, but in reality it really does not matter because it follows the intent of the rule.

"The rules were followed in that the member was named, I asked the member to stand and suspended the member through motion.

"The speaker's authority alone extends to a suspension without naming.

The speaker has the authority to ask a member to remove himself from the chamber if he violates certain [rules] of the House without naming."

On Sunday, Lightbourn said that in order for a member to be suspended after being named in the House, the speaker has to move a motion for the members to vote on the suspension.

He argued that Major only asked the members to vote on whether Minnis should be named before he suspended him. Lightbourn said he hoped Major would admit this and allow Minnis to enter the House.

"It's not a question of semantics when you are dealing with matters of a parliamentary nature," Lightbourn said. "They are very precise about the procedure that should have been followed."

He said the opposition wants the business of the House to proceed.

"I would hope the speaker would say 'I accept that the procedure I adopted was not the proper procedure and therefore Dr. Minnis is not suspended', rather than pursue the matter further and say 'okay let's take a proper vote now'."

Central and South Abaco MP Edison Key was the only FNM MP who showed up to Parliament on Monday.

However, his appearance was brief. Key left the House a few minutes after the morning session began and did not return.

He told The Nassau Guardian on Sunday that he would be present in the House to represent his constituents. Last week, Minnis said every FNM MP would be absent from the House for the duration of his suspension.

He was suspended and escorted out of the House by more than 10 police officers for refusing to withdraw comments he made about Prime Minister Perry Christie's relationship with Lyford Cay fashion designer Peter Nygard.

Major later expunged those comments from the House's records.

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