Saying that only a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly can extend the March 21st constitutional deadline for the holding of general elections, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday maintained that the David Granger-led APNU+AFC administration is defying the High Court by not announcing a date for elections.
“You are hearing all kinds of spins and deception from the government. They are deceiving the population by making them believe that that somehow they still have options available… that the resort to an appeal somehow stops the timeline or removes the responsibility from them for holding elections within 90 days… The timeline keeps ticking and you had both the judiciary and the legislature speaking clearly about this matter, so we believe they are misleading a large number of people….,” Jagdeo told a press conference.
Acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire last Thursday found that the December 21st passage of the no-confidence motion against the government was valid and that this should have triggered the immediate resignation of the Cabinet, including the President, in accordance with Article 106 (6) of the constitution.
Article 106 (6) states that “The Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
The judge delivered the ruling after hearing three cases filed in wake of the passage of the motion. The government said after the ruling that it continues to believe that the full adjudication of the issue is in the national interest. “Until the matter is concluded at the highest court of appeal the status quo remains and the business of government continues as usual. The government reassures the Guyanese people that it will continue to act in accordance with the constitution of Guyana,” it said in a subsequent statement.
Two sets of appeals, by Attorney General Basil Williams and attorneys Roysdale Forde and Olayne Joseph on behalf of APNU General Secretary Joseph Harmon, have since been filed. The Court of Appeal is expected to set dates for hearings in the coming days.
At a press conference last Friday, Jagdeo had said that the PPP was not flexing on the deadline for polls, signaling that his party was shutting the door on negotiating an extension with the government.
He again reiterated this position during his opening remarks at the start of the press conference on Thursday.
According to Jagdeo, people have asked if the opposition is prepared to extend the 90-day period, to go back to Parliament and extend the life of government since only the government with the opposition and not the court can do it.
“Our answer at this point in time is a categorical no, the reason being that they took 18 days to hold the meeting between the Leader of the Opposition and the President. While he [was] treating everything else as priority, he did not see this as priority. Right now, they are not treating this matter seriously. In fact, they are doing nothing to show good faith or effort towards meeting that timeline… they are trying to frustrate the timeline,” he said, while noting that the opposition has been “extremely reasonable” thus far.
However when asked later, Jagdeo said that the door to meeting will be opened only if he sees “good faith” on government’s part. Asked what this will entail, he replied that the government has to announce the start of elections preparations, tell its commissioners to stop delaying the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from moving forward and to bring the July polls option closer to the constitutional deadline.
Earlier, he insisted that there is still time left for the deadline to be met and he said that the voters’ list can be updated to include those who have reached 18 years and that the GECOM staff who worked for last November’s local government polls could undergo additional training to prepare them for the general elections. “If there is a genuine effort to meet the constitutional deadline, then it would be unreasonable for us to say ‘you miss it by a week or two weeks.’ But there is none of that now. In fact, they are actively encouraging the breach of our constitution,” Jagdeo said.
He reiterated that after March 21st, the government becomes illegal and when pressed on who would lead the country after then, he said “we will define all of that when the time comes.”
When asked how the electoral process could be reversed if the appeal reaches the Caribbean Court of Justice and government wins, Jagdeo voiced his certainty that the Trinidad-based final court will deliver its rulings before March 21st.
“That is why we all have to collectively press… the judiciary to hear these matters expeditiously as the Chief Justice did. The international community has weighed in on this matter… I believe if the Court of Appeal does this, this will reach the CCJ in a short while,” he said.
The no-confidence motion, in the name of Jagdeo, was declared passed by Speaker of the National Assembly Dr. Barton Scotland following a surprise vote in its favour from now former government Member of Parliament (MP) Charrandass Persaud. Government had initially accepted the passage of the motion but later did an about face, claiming that the Persaud’s vote was invalid given that he is a Canadian citizen and that the motion needed 34 votes and not 33 to succeed. Following its failure to get Scotland to reverse his decision, government moved to the court. During her rulings, which were read one after the other over a four-hour period on Thursday afternoon, Justice George-Wiltshire ruled that Persaud’s voted was valid despite him unlawfully occupying a seat in the National Assembly, that the majority needed to pass the motion was 33 of the 65 elected members and that Cabinet should have resigned immediately after the passage.
