…if it finds no-confidence vote was validly passed
Justice Winston Anderson of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on Thursday, frowned upon the slothfulness of the judicial system in Guyana regarding the hearing of matters in relation to the no-confidence motion cases.
As day two of the oral submissions got underway Justice Anderson remarked that the judicial system in Guyana should have deployed all resources to ensure the cases were heard in a timely manner.
Sanjeev Datadin, who is representing former government parliamentarian Charrandas Persaud, agreed that the judiciary should have taken such steps.
Charrandas Persaud had voted in favour the opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion on December 21, 2018.
The vote, according to some interpretations, would have seen the government being ousted from power.
But the coalition has since challenged the validity of the motion.
If the CCJ finds that the motion was indeed validly passed, then it means that general elections ought to have been held within three months following its passage and that would have been March 21.
This is why Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, who is representing Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo in the proceedings, requested that the court issue an order for general elections to be held in the shortest possible time, should it be determined that the no-confidence motion was validly passed.
Senior Counsel, Douglas Mendes asked the court to be “stingy” with the time within which general elections ought to be held because the three-month period after the passage of the no-confidence motion was passed on December 21, 2018.
“The court should be stingy about the further time that should be given to as best as possible comply with the constitutional mandate,” Mendes said.
Emphasising that the constitution is clear that elections must be held, the lawyer said any time to be granted must be kept to be the barest minimum. “We can’t turn the clock back but in determining what orders to make, we have to bear in mind that we are on borrowed time and so any further time that my learned friend wishes to borrow will have to be kept to the absolute minimum,” he said.
Mendes said the voters’ list was used at last November’s local government elections and it should be updated to avoid any unreasonable delay.
Justice Anderson questioned if the elections could be called within three months if there are pending court cases to which Datadin responded that “unless there is an order to stop you from proceeding, then you should proceed”.
Guyana’s High Court had ruled that the motion was validly passed.
The ruling was challenged by the government at the local Court of Appeal, which found in a 2:1 decision, that an absolute majority of 34 votes was needed to pass the motion.
The matter is now before the CCJ for a final and binding judgment.
