No-Confidence Motion…Govt. failed to respect High Court’s rejection of stay; set precedent for disrespect of judiciary

No-Confidence Motion…Govt. failed to respect High Court’s rejection of stay; set precedent for disrespect of judiciary – Jagdeo

Mar 29, 2019 News

The government failed to respect the decision in the High Court by Chief Justice Roxane George – that no stay would be granted on the 90-day Constitutional deadline dictated by the Constitution of Guyana, when a motion of No Confidence is validly passed in the National Assembly. Further, the refusal by the government to respect that decision constitutes disrespect for the Judiciary, and has set an unfavourable precedent for governments who may face motions of no-confidence in the future.
This was expressed by People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo.
During his weekly press conference yesterday, at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition, Jagdeo expressed his disapproval of the way the government responded to the no-confidence motion, specifically after the Chief Justice declared that the motion was validly passed by the National Assembly on December 21, 2018. She had said that a majority of the 65 elected members of the National Assembly is 33, and that 33 is a sufficient number of the “Yes” votes required to ensure that the motion passes. Along with the government’s appeal of the motion at the High Court, it had requested a stay on the 90-day deadline, a request that the Chief Justice denied.
Despite the fact that the appeal court has now overturned that ruling, Jagdeo said that it is still an issue that the government did not make ample efforts to move toward General and Regional Elections before the Appeal Court’s ruling, because it was supposed to respect the ruling of the High Court when it was made on January 31, 2019.
Between then and the date of the ruling by the Appeal Court (March 22), the government had almost two months to make preparations for Elections. Yet, in that period, the President and government-aligned commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) went back and forth on who should make the first move. Jagdeo had said that this was one of the tactics used by the government to delay elections.
Further, the government had used the time to argue that the time set out by the Constitution is not enough, and it had strongly advocated for House to House Registration, instead of the suggestions proffered by Jagdeo, which he said would have solved all of the contentions raised within the timeframe provided by the Constitution.
Whether or not the country could have gone to elections within the timeframe is inconsequential, because the government did not make the effort to respect the deadline, Jagdeo said.
“[There are] implications in the region where any government that is subject to a no-confidence motion can prolong their tenure in office” on the grounds that there is a possibility of the higher court ruling in its favour. They have succeeded in staying in office beyond the three months”. The government had received the ruling by the Appeal Court a day after the deadline.
“We will internationalise these issues. I would like every government in the region to pay attention to this because it would have implications for governments and oppositions across the region, particularly in the Caribbean,” he said, because he believes that this sets a precedent, not just for the local government, but for governments across the region.

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No-Confidence Motion…Govt. failed to respect High Court’s rejection of stay; set precedent for disrespect of judiciary – Jagdeo

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No-Confidence Motion…Govt. failed to respect High Court’s rejection of stay; set precedent for disrespect of judiciary – Jagdeo

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