The three parties which together hold one seat in parliament have appointed Timothy Jonas SC to be their representative on the Constitution Reform Commission.
A letter to this effect dated January 17th, 2024 was sent to Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC. It was in response to one from Nandlall on January 10th, 2024.
The letter to Nandlall was signed by Kian Jabour of A New and United Guyana, Dr Asha Kissoon, Leader of The New Movement and Lenox Shuman, the Liberty and Justice Party.
Although being in office for nearly 42 months, the PPP/C government is only now getting around to convening the commission. Analysts had said that it had no interest in constitutional reforms being approved before the next general elections.
More than a year after the Constitution Reform Bill was passed in the National Assembly, government on January 10th dispatched letters for nominees to the Commission to be submitted by next month for swift appointment thereafter.
“On the 10th day of January, on behalf of His Excellency the President, I dispatched letters to the relevant persons and organisations, inviting their nominees to be appointed by the President, to the constitutional Reform Commission, in accordance with Section 4 of the Constitution Reform Act,” Attorney General Anil Nandlall told Stabroek News on January 16.
“…As soon as the nominees are received the names will be passed to the President for their appointments,” he added The letters request that the nominees be submitted on or before February 10.
In December last year, Nandlall had apologized on behalf of government for the delay and had assured that the process onward would be swift.
“The President assures that the Constitutional Reform Commission will be appointed in the shortest possible time. We apologize for the delay,” he had said when contacted on the matter.
He had attributed the delays to government’s focus on dealing with Venezuela’s aggression, which came at a time concurrent with his government’s timeline for the requisite processes to be triggered.
“The delay had to do with the distraction with matters connected to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country, but he [the President] has given firm instructions to the Attorney General to dispatch the letters to the relevant persons and agencies inviting their nominations in accordance with the Constitutional Reform Commission Act,” he said.
