Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 30, 2019 News
By Feona Morrison
All three cases relating to the No-Confidence Motion will be regarded and treated as urgent, President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Mr. Justice Adrian Saunders, has said. He has fixed Friday, May 10, at 9:00hrs to commence hearing in all the matters.
During a case management conference (CMC) yesterday at the court’s Trinidad and Tobago headquarters, Justice Saunders, and two other judges fixed strict timelines for legal documents to be filed with the court.
They also fixed timelines for those which have to be served respective parties. The Case Management Conference was viewed via live broadcast from the court’s website.
The Conference was attended by representatives of the State, Attorney General Basil Williams, Solicitor General Nigel Hawke, and Senator and Attorney-at-Law Eamon Courtenay of Belize, who tuned in via video call.
Attorneys-at-Law Kamal Ramkarran and Sanjeev Datadin appeared on behalf of Christopher Ram and Charrandass Persaud respectively.
Attorneys-at-Law Anil Nandlall and Roysdale Forde appeared for Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo and Joseph Harmon in his capacity as a representative of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) in that order.
Senior Counsel Neil Boston appeared for private citizen Compton Reid, while Attorney-at-Law Rafiq Khan is representing Barton Scotland, Speaker of the National Assembly.
After much deliberation, the panel of Judges invited the respective lawyers to file Notices of Appeal by next week Monday, April 1.
Also, the President ordered that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) be added as a party in the cases and that Notices of Appeal be served forthwith on the electoral body by Friday, April 5.
According to Saunders, “Now the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is a necessary party in these matters and therefore if no application had been made to join them by any of the parties, the court of its own motion is ordering that GECOM be joined as a defendant.
“And (the court orders) further that personal service of the Notices of Appeal and documents that will constitute the records of appeal and the orders that we are making today be effected on the commission on or before the end of next week (April 5).”
Williams and lawyers were instructed to file cross appeals, if any, by Monday, April 8. The court ordered that written submissions be filed and exchanged on or before Wednesday, April 17. Any replies to these submissions are to be filed by Tuesday, April 23.
All documents in relation to these matters will be filed electronically. The matter comes up for pre-trial review the following day, Wednesday April 24.
Khan, during his address to the court, said that the Speaker will not take part in the contested aspects and will not file submissions, but will abide by any orders made by the court.
“When we have the pre-trial review we will address issues which have to do with the order and length of oral submissions. But I must warn that we are trying to discourage duplication and parties should co-operate with each other, so that you don’t have two parties addressing us on the same points and making the same arguments.” Justice Saunders urged.
Justice Saunders continued, “We have set down one day (May 10) for this matter and we are going to try to hear it that day. We will start at nine out of an abundance of caution. It would be appropriate that all counsel appear in person.
“This is a matter of extreme importance and we can’t afford hitches with the telecommunications and the slight disadvantage a party appearing by video might have relative to a party appearing in person.”
“We are setting aside May 10. We start at nine and we work till the end even if we are here until 4 or 5’o clock,” Justice Saunders told the lawyers who all agreed to the date and timings.
On the night of December 21, last, 33 of the 65 members of the National Assembly voted in favour of a No-Confidence motion brought against the coalition government.
The Speaker thereafter ruled that the motion provided for under Article 106 (6) of the Constitution of Guyana, was successfully passed.
Article 106 (6) reads, “The President including the cabinet shall resign if the Government is defeated by the vote of majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.”
The successful passage of such a motion means that the President and Ministers of Government should resign and that elections be held within three months in accordance with Article 106 (7) of the Constitution of Guyana.
According to that Article, “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, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the election.”
But Government has insisted that 34 votes were required for it to be defeated and that the vote of Alliance for Change (AFC) Member of Parliament, Charrandass Persaud, who voted in favour of the motion, was invalid since he held dual citizenship which contravenes Article 155 (1) (a) of the Constitution of Guyana.
That article states, “No person shall be qualified for election as a member of the National Assembly who is, by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.”
As such, the Government filed action in the High Court.
Chief Justice Roxane George ruled that the No-Confidence Motion was successfully passed and that the vote of Persaud was valid despite his dual citizenship. In essence, she held that 33 votes were required to unseat the government.
The Chief Justice further ruled that Persaud’s vote was preserved by the provisions set out in Article 165 (2) of the Constitution which states, “The Assembly may act notwithstanding any vacancy in its membership … (even) after any dissolution of Parliament and the presence or participation of any person not entitled to be present or to participate in the proceedings of the Assembly, shall not invalidate those proceedings.”
On appeal, the Court of Appeal in a majority ruling invalidated the passage of the No-Confidence Motion on the ground that 34 votes, which constitute an “absolute majority” of all members of the National Assembly, were needed for its successful passage.
In the majority ruling by Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justice of Appeal Dawn Gregory, the Judges alluded to submissions proffered by Queens Counsel (QC) Dr. Francis Alexis, a former Attorney General of Grenada, who was hired by the State.
According to the Queens Counsel, in calculating the “absolute majority”, the 65 members of the National Assembly had to be divided by two, which would result in 32.5, but since the .5 represents half and there is no half-member, that number needs to be rounded off to 33, and add one more, making the majority 34 –-an absolute majority.
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