The speaker of the National Assembly has returned from London, where she attended the 19th biennial Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of all Commonwealth of Nations at the Westminster Palace, from January 2  to 6
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Hon Fatoumata Jahumpa-Ceesay (FJC) represented The Gambia at the conference, accompanied by the clerk of the National Assembly, DCM Kebbeh.

It would be recalled that the 1st Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth took place in Canada in 1969. In recent years, the conference has been held every two years and has served as an important training and consultative ground for commonwealth speakers.

The conference has continued to provide a unique opportunity for experts and academics from all over the commonwealth to interface and discuss with the speakers.

It is particularly useful for new or young speakers of small and emerging democracies like The Gambia, whose speaker had the opportunity to participate in discussions and orientations from older and well experienced speakers from the Commonwealth countries.

This year’s conference accorded participants another unique opportunity of training and participation as the conference focused on topics and themes ranging from privilege and right of reply in parliament, freedom of speech in parliament-  an absolute right for members, relationship with the courts/separation of powers, should there be a right of reply, keeping order and fostering decorum, powers of the chair, changing institutional culture, conventions and traditional (generational divide), among others.

According to reports reaching the Daily Observer, each of the topics were deliberated upon at both individual workshop levels and at plenary sessions.

In addition, the speakers had an audience and lunch with HM Queen Elizabeth II and HM the Duke of Edinburgh at St James Palace in Westminster.
HM Queen Elizabeth II
The conference concluded with India endorsed as the host of the 20th Conference in 2010.

The National Assembly thanked the UNDP for shouldering the cost of participation for the speaker.