Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 04, 2017 News
Following the hosting of a symposium organised by The Carter Center Guyana on Friday, Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo has warned about the involvement of the Center, being an international body, in Guyana’s constitutional reform process.
The symposium which was also supported by the United Kingdom High Commission was titled, “Perspectives on Guyana’s Constitutional Reform Process.”
Speaking at his party’s press conference yesterday, Jagdeo said that government had asked the People’s Progressive Party Civic to participate in the process. However, he said that following that invitation it was learnt that the Carter Center would be leading the process as well.
He said that he heard the government was hiring someone from the Carter Center. “It seems as though the Carter Center and the British High Commission are leading this. So we are still a bit confused as to which external agency the government has requested to work with them on the whole process of constitutional reform.”
According to Jagdeo, his party has always argued that it has grave concerns about the process since it was announced by the government. He said that the process is being treated like a task of the executive and it has departed from the last time there was major constitutional reform.
He said that in the past, the two major political parties at the time, the PPP/C and the People’s National Congress had gotten together along with members of civil society and led the process of constitutional reform.
“But it seems as though this is executive driven. Secondly, we asked the UN (United Nations) team what precisely the government wants to change if it is leading the process. So we did not get clear answers about that. Thirdly, we said that we are open to any discussion about constitutional reform, but right now we have a major issue, and so the fourth point is, there are daily breaches of our current constitution.”
Jagdeo cited the Carvil Duncan matter, the case of government disregarding the advice of the Judicial Service Commission on the appointment of judges and President David Granger and Attorney General Basil Williams, ascribing their own interpretation to the constitutional provision relating to the appointment of Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, as instances when the government would have violated the constitution.
He added that the Ministry of Social Cohesion taking over the responsibilities of the Ethnic Relations Commission is also another charge against the government of violating the constitution, whereby an executive agency took over the work of a bipartisan constitutional body.
“So we said: how do you ensure respect for the constitution? Because we had a huge constitutional reform in the past, and how do you get the President to accept what have been settled interpretations on some of the constitutional provisions. For example, both PNC and PPP agreed for 20-odd years about the process of appointment for the chairperson of GECOM, and now the President just pops along and has a totally different view.”
Jagdeo said that while his party has an open mind about constitutional reform, the PPP is concerned now about the daily breaches of the constitution, law and order. He said he does not understand why Guyana should be pursuing a new round of constitutional reform when the government does not appear to respect the provisions agreed on in the past.
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Apr 19, 2024
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