Attorney General Basil Williams said the government is still looking at appealing the recent ruling of acting Chief Justice Ian Chang that a president can run for a third term.
“Fortunately we have six weeks within which to file the appeal so we are working on it,” he said when asked yesterday what was government’s latest position on the issue.
Justice Chang on July 9 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. The court action had been brought by Cedrick Richardson, a private citizen who challenged the restriction created by amendments to Article 90 of the Constitution that were enacted in 2001 after the bipartisan constitution reform process.
Williams told reporters at his office that there are many issues that government can raise in an appeal.
One of those, he said lies in the fact that the framers of our constitution dealt with a holistic constitution and as such would have cemented the provisions in article 154 by outlining the manner in which certain articles in that provision can be amended.
He said that it entrenches Article 164 which was not dealt with in the judgement in that “it cannot be amended by referendum which is very important.” He added too that one can draw the view that limiting a person to two terms was a “movement which enhanced democracy and as we have seen there has been a change of government.” He noted that there are arguments that if there is an alteration of a constitutional provision it can be slightly amended with a two-thirds majority vote.
In addition to allowing Jagdeo to seek re-election, Justice Chang’s ruling also appears to enable persons who have become Guyanese citizens by virtue of registration to run for president, as well as to invalidate a requirement that candidates be resident in Guyana on nomination day and for at least seven years prior.
These qualifications had also been effected by the amendments to Article 90, which also saw the inclusion of two clauses to allow for re-election only once.
The challenge, which was initiated in February, just three months before Guyanese headed to the May 11 polls, raised questions about its timing and the motives of Richardson, who identified himself in court documents as a 50-year-old driver of West Ruimveldt.
