…on meaning of “majority”
The PNC/AFC Government insisted on playing hop-scotch over our Constitution; so, not surprisingly, we’re back to square one!! To wit, why wasn’t the NCM passed, when the Speaker and the National Assembly affirmed on Dec 21 that it was; and it was then accepted by the President? All was going hunky dory, excepting Amna Ally, the Government’s Chief Whip, who was ruing the day she taunted the PPP by saying, “Bring it on, baby!!”
The PPP did bring it on, and before the night was over, “some a dem a hallah and some a dem a bawl!!” Cries of anguish, “No, Charrandas! Noooo!!” filled the airwaves from one distraught PNC female MP from the interior, while the PNC MP from Linden viciously elbowed the said Charrandas from the AFC, who had the temerity to vote his conscience.
The Government had bragged about “democracy working” in Guyana with the NCM! PM Nagamootoo even boasted the PPP had cogged his phrasing of the NCM he’d brought in 2014! Then thrown a straw about cutting MPs in half to calculate an “absolute majority” of 65, the PNC/AFC desperately clutched at it and headed to the courts.
Knowing they never had a leg to stand on – much less a legal theory – they fell back on the mathematical concoction that had been invented for totally different circumstances. And the High Court – in the person of none other than the Chief Justice (ag) – threw them out on their ears!!
But winning the case was not the point; delaying the elections from the constitutionally mandated three months was what they now wanted, so that their plan to “fix” the election could kick-in. Enter the tag-team tactic with GECOM – now controlled by the Granger unilaterally appointed Chairman, Patterson – to wrestle the PPP to the ground over house-to-house registration till 2020, when first oil would start flowing!! They therefore trooped over to the Appellate Court, where some chips were called in and two of the three Justices – including the Chancellor (ag) – shockingly ruled in their favour.
These two were definitely falling on their swords, since they’d never be able to regain any credibility in the Commonwealth judicial fraternity for accepting the cockamamie argument to declare that 33 wasn’t greater than 32 – when it was on this basis that the Government WAS the Government!!
The CCJ’s already repeated the point made by the Chief Justice earlier: that any so-called “absolute” majority was defined by the Constitution as the majority of ALL 65 members voting; as opposed to a “simple” majority, which is the majority of whoever are present.
So, next week, the CCJ will tell us 33’s greater than 32!! And then on to elections on square two!!
…on naked threats
Once again, Basil Williams demonstrated to the worldwide legal fraternity – thanks to the new communications technology – what a mediocre lawyer he is. One wonders why he was awarded silk by Granger. Surely it couldn’t be for being possessed of any legal acumen, since he’s the losingest AG in our history.
This was painfully evident in his presentation to the CCJ panel. But he took cover among the battery of high-priced lawyers from foreign, whom they’d hired. They were just as clueless as he was!
Your Eyewitness wondered where the five old heads were, who’d been hired to whisper legal maxims into Williams’s ears when he was flummoxed, as he frequently was. One of them had even sat on the CCJ benches, and – unlike the five cheerleaders – might’ve warned Williams when he was entering choppy waters. As for instance, when he asked the Bench to ignore legal precedents, since that would torpedo Government’s case. He pleaded that that would lead to “unrest”.
Sounds like a threat, since PNC has a monopoly on “unrest”!
…on corruption
On its 4th anniversary, the PNC/AFC Government issued a panegyric to itself. It insisted, “No government before has done more within such a short span of time.”
Done more what? Looted more per annum that any other administration?