The Third Ses­sion of the 12th Par­lia­ment will be launched with a cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing at 1.30 pm on Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 12.

The Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day con­firmed that the cur­rent Sec­ond ses­sion of the 12th Par­lia­ment pro­rogues un­til Sep­tem­ber.

A procla­ma­tion from act­ing Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo an­nounced the pro­rogu­ing of the Sec­ond ses­sion at mid­night on Sep­tem­ber 9.

Al­so is­sued was the act­ing Pres­i­dent’s procla­ma­tion that the Third ses­sion of the 12th Par­lia­ment com­mences at 1.30 pm on Sep­tem­ber 12.

Par­lia­ment of­fi­cials con­firmed this will be a cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing.

Par­lia­ment is cur­rent­ly on its mid-year re­cess.

Yes­ter­day, Camille Robin­son-Reg­is, the Leader of Gov­ern­ment Busi­ness in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, told Guardian Me­dia that there will be a re­sump­tion of House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives sit­tings in the com­ing days, pri­or to the pro­rogu­ing of the Sec­ond Ses­sion on Sep­tem­ber 9.

There were no cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ings in re­cent years due to COVID-19 pan­dem­ic re­stric­tions.

At the up­com­ing open­ing, apart from the tra­di­tion­al mil­i­tary guard of ho­n­our out­side of the Red House Par­lia­ment com­plex, Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes is ex­pect­ed to de­liv­er an ad­dress to both the Up­per (Sen­ate) and Low­er (House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives) Hous­es of Par­lia­ment that day.

Each House will meet sep­a­rate­ly in their re­spec­tive North (HOR) and South (Sen­ate) cham­bers first.

They will then gath­er to­geth­er in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives North cham­ber for Weekes’ ad­dress. Mem­bers of the ju­di­cia­ry, diplo­mat­ic corps and oth­er guests are al­so ex­pect­ed.

As is al­lowed dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, any Mem­ber, if nec­es­sary, can at­tend vir­tu­al­ly with the per­mis­sion of the House Speak­er or Sen­ate Pres­i­dent.

Yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion chief whip David Lee didn’t an­swer queries on if the op­po­si­tion would at­tend the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing or boy­cott it.

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Jear­lean John said, “We haven’t re­ceived the in­vi­ta­tions yet but I see no rea­son why the UNC won’t be in at­ten­dance.”

The first or­der of busi­ness in the Third Ses­sion is the 2022-2023 Bud­get.

Gov­ern­ment sources said Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert will like­ly de­liv­er the Bud­get date very soon.

They couldn’t say if it would be giv­en in the last few up­com­ing sit­tings of the cur­rent Sec­ond Ses­sion or dur­ing the Sep­tem­ber 2 Spot­light on the Econ­o­my Bud­get cur­tain rais­er - or on Sep­tem­ber 12 af­ter the cer­e­mo­ni­al open­ing of Par­lia­ment con­cludes.

The Bud­get date is tipped to be very soon af­ter Sep­tem­ber 12. The Gov­ern­ment said re­cent­ly there would be an ear­ly Bud­get. The pack­age of mea­sures for a fis­cal year has been usu­al­ly pre­sent­ed in the first week of Oc­to­ber, but will be ear­li­er this year.

On Sep­tem­ber 2, af­ter Im­bert pre­sides over the Spot­light on the Econ­o­my - dis­cussing is­sues af­fect­ing the econ­o­my, in­clud­ing in­fla­tion and how Gov­ern­ment may ad­dress the most vul­ner­a­ble - Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley will leave that af­ter­noon for over­seas busi­ness trips.

The PM’s go­ing to Switzer­land for meet­ings with Pro­man and lat­er with Shell and BP, then days lat­er, to the US for an en­er­gy sub-com­mit­tee meet­ing.