Presidential candidate of the People’s Progressive Party, Donald Ramotar, believes that there is widespread misconception about the Guyana Constitution, and he thinks that the Guyana Constitution is superior to the constitutions of most other countries. He also said that immunity given to executive presidents here is necessary to protect that office, given the importance of its functions.
Ramotar’s comments come even as the political opposition and civil society groups point to the urgent need for reforms to be enacted to the Guyana Constitution; making reference, in most instances, to the powers of the executive president. “If you take things in a general sense, of course you would find specifics here and there in different constitutions; but in a general sense, the president of the Republic of Guyana does not have more powers than any of the other presidents in the world,” Ramotar said.
He explained that the PPP had contention with one aspect of the 1980 constitution, which had given the president the power to prorogue the Parliament even if he was under investigation. This was changed, as per commitment, when the PPP/ C took office in 1992.
As it relates to the president having immunity from the laws of Guyana, Ramotar sought to justify this clause by explaining that it is necessary to protect the office of the president, given the importance of its functions. Nevertheless, he declared: “I will probably seek advice (from) many of my colleagues, along with (procuring) professional advice on some of these other things in and out of government, and so forth.
“After the 1997 election, we went on a total new review to write a new constitution. We spent millions — if not more than a billion dollars — in that process, in which we went to every single corner of this country.”
The result of this exercise was carried to the National Assembly, where, according to Ramotar, it received unanimous support. “I don’t think that we have a bad constitution … I think our constitution is probably superior to many constitutions in the world,” the presidential candidate declared.
Dr Rupert Roopnaraine of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) has been one of the advocates of constitutional reform. In a recent interview with Guyana Times International, Dr Roopnaraine said that a government comprised of the joint opposition political parties (JOPP) would seek to remove the executive presidency since, according to him, it causes a complete breakdown in the rule of law. Dr Roopnaraine, who was a member of the Constitutional Commission, said far too much power is concentrated in the Office of the President, and this lessens the potency of other institutions in society.
He is convinced that the offices of “Head of State” and Head of Government” should be separated and should be made more responsive to the Parliament, as a better approach. This is something that the Alliance For Change (AFC) party has said it would do within 100 days of being elected into government; and Dr Roopnaraine said he is heartened that more groups are seeing the importance of this type of action. The Guyana Human Rights Association was also spearheading a civil society grouping that called for electoral reform — a notion that has been supported by several political parties.
Comments are closed.