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{
    "id": 939725,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/939725/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 123,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "notice regarding the Sitting in which the House would consider the President’s reservations on the Finance Bill, 2019. With regard to the number of Members who attended yesterday’s Sitting, I can confirm that the biometric register and the electronic log-in system indicate that a total of not less than 270 Members were present at that Sitting – having come in at different times during the Sitting. Since at the time when I was ascertaining the threshold to make a decision on the Memorandum there were 161 Members present, you will agree with me that the die had been cast given that there was less than 233 Members present; other Members having left the Chamber on their own free will. However, as your Speaker, I would not fault any Member for not being present in the House to exercise his or her right to vote on any matter. Indeed, before proceeding to take the vote, I did order that the Division Bell be rung for 10 minutes, so that any Member who may have stepped out of the House would return and participate in the making of that decision. It is, therefore, untrue and incorrect that Members did not have sufficient time to lobby internally with a view to garnering the threshold necessary to vote so as to reject the President’s reservations on the said Bill, if that was what the House desired. Having said that, may I reiterate that the decision of the House on the re-consideration of the President’s Memorandum on the Finance Bill (National Assembly Bill No.51 of 2019) as pronounced by the Chair yesterday retains the import that the House did pass the said Bill a second time in a manner fully accommodating the President’s reservations in terms of Article 115 (2) (a) of the Constitution. The House is accordingly guided and the general public to know the truth. I thank you. Hon. Members, this was merely a Communication. However, the truth is out there. It is recorded. If Members come to the House and then walk out, they cannot blame anybody. They went to TV stations and argued that they were never given adequate time. That is wrong and dishonest. Some of the Members who appeared on TV stations were not in the Chamber. You see, you were not elected to go to TV stations. You were elected to come to Parliament and, specifically, to the National Assembly. If you think that you can make laws in TV stations, you can only blame yourselves. Let us proceed to the next Order."
}