ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada: THE SEVENTH session of the Grenada parliament was official opened here Friday six weeks after the most contentious and closely fought general elections in the island's 30 years of independence. The general predictions here are for a very interesting session this year after four years where debates were mundane and routine because of the almost complete control of the ruling New National Party. NNP won all 15 seats in the 1999 general electrons and the parliament was without an opposition until Michael Baptiste left the government midway through the term. "Potentially it is the best configuration since Maurice Bishop and Herbert Balize teamed up in 1979 against the Eric Gairy regime," one person wrote here recently. A Bishop-led alliance won six of the 15 seats in parliament in 1976, a period of heightened activism. Three years later Bishop led a revolution against Gairy, while Blaize went into political retirement. He however returned in 1984 to become Prime Minister in the first general elections after the demise of the revolution a year later. Friday's opening of parliament was largely ceremonial with the traditional throne speech reading by Governor General Sir Daniel Williams. However in a sign of things to come, for the first time in history there was not a unanimous choice for the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The government nominated Lawrence Joseph and the opposition Cecelia Quashie. As expected Joseph was nominated after the first secret ballot was held for the choose of a speaker here. The opposition has opposed the nomination of Joseph saying he was not "sufficiently sanitized from the political process" to believe he would be a fair arbitrator. Joseph campaigned with the NNP and was the party's chairman up to last October. However after his appointment Joseph said that he is confident he will get along with the opposition, saying he backs himself in being a fair speaker. He said his arbitration role as Minister of Labor in the last government has put him in good stead. Local lawyer Leslie-Ann Seon, the daughter of well-known regional broadcaster Leslie Seon, was nominated unanimously as President of the Senate. SOURCE: CARIBUPDATE.COM