Attorney General (AG) Basil Williams SC on Thursday suggested that the government would still be legal if the March 21st constitutional deadline for the holding of new elections elapses and he said that the law is clear that it would only resign after the president is sworn in following elections.
Speaking to reporters outside of the Court of Appeal at Kingston, Williams sought to assure that Guyana will not end up in a constitutional crisis, while arguing that Article 106(7) of the constitution offers options.
“…There is a government. When you read 106 (7), try to read it so it wouldn’t arrive at an absurd position. You will see that the last sentence in 106 (7) says that the government resigns after a president is elected after an election,” he said.
Article 106(6) provides that the “Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of the majority of all elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
Article 106(7) adds that “Notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the election.”
“There is no drop dead date after 90 days. There were two options given inside that same provision,” Williams said, before explaining that if the three-month-deadline isn’t met, then “you enter into a process to arrive at the two-thirds majority. It means that the section contemplates after 90 days without an election you move to a stage where the two parties talk to get a two-thirds majority. That has to be a process.”
Williams insisted that “there is no time running out,” despite the no-confidence motion against government being declared carried on December 21st. Although the validity of the motion is the subject of a court challenge by the government, the opposition PPP/C has repeatedly said that March 21st is fast approaching and that time is running out for the holding of elections. The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has already notified President David Granger that it cannot meet the constitutional deadline.
However, Williams yesterday said the framers of the constitution must have recognised that it couldn’t be “90 days exactly.”
‘Erroneous’
Williams added that government also contends that Article 106 (7) is an erroneous provision since it seeks to impose on the government the conduct of elections. He stressed, “The government does not handle the conduct of elections” and added that the constitution gives GECOM that responsibility.
“I said in the High Court that it was a hasty insertion of those two provisions in Article 106,” he said, before reminding that before President Jimmy Carter came to Guyana, the Minister of Home Affairs used to be in charge of conducting elections. “But after Mr. Carter, that was changed and [it] was introduced into the constitution in 2000,” he said while stressing that the provisions of Article 106 were “erroneous” and that it is now left to the court to look to interpret them alongside the other provisions in the constitution and “try and come up with an interpretation that does not lead to an absurdity.”
Asked why APNU and AFC were moving ahead using the same two provisions in 2014, when a no-confidence motion was tabled against the then PPP/C government, Williams responded “that is something that happened in 2014… I am dealing with this now.” He reminded that the 2014 motion was never heard as the parliament was subsequently prorogued.
“That is how the law develops. Nobody is a repository of all the law. You learn the law every day,” he said. “You will have to read other provisions in the constitution to arrive at a sensible outcome,” he further said, before adding that it would be a contradiction of the constitution for the government to hold elections.
Asked what happens if the president and the opposition leader do not meet before the 90 days expire, Williams responded “nothing happens. That provision is ultra vires the constitution… They got it wrong. The framers got it wrong and so the court has to try and adopt some approach.”
President Granger earlier this week invited Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo to a meeting. Yesterday, Jagdeo indicated that he would not attend the meeting in the absence of the announcement of an elections date.
While declining to say whether Granger could seek the support of Jagdeo for an extension of the elections date or if he would move to prorogue parliament, Williams said that government is pursuing a legitimate remedy in the court. “We believe that the vote was erroneous; that it was a miscalculated vote,” he added.
