Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang yesterday afternoon ruled that the presidential term-limit is unconstitutional without the approval of the people through a referendum, thereby creating an opening for another run by former president Bharrat Jagdeo.
Ruling on an action brought by citizen Cedrick Richardson, who challenged the restriction created by amendments to Article 90 of the Constitution that were enacted in 2001 after the bipartisan constitution reform process, Justice Chang found that the changes “curtail people’s democratic choices” and offend declarations in Articles 1 and 9 that Guyana is a “democratic state” in which “sovereignty resides in the people.”
“The court therefore holds that Act No. 17 of 2001, in so far as it seeks to trench on and to dilute the pre-existing democratic rights of the electorate to elect as President a person of their own choice, needed referendum and is invalid and without legal effect for reason of