Political party, A New and United Guyana (ANUG) yesterday urged that a shared governance arrangement be entered into by the two main political forces until the next elections and that no contracts be awarded or policy decisions made during that time.
The party also said that Chair-man of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Justice (Ret’d) James Patterson should step down and President David Granger and Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo should work out a mechanism to select a new elections chief.
ANUG statements followed Tuesday’s rulings by the Carib-bean Court of Justice (CCJ) that the December 21st no-confidence motion against the government was valid and Patterson was selected as GECOM’s Chairman in an unconstitutional process. The party also called on both the government and opposition to be mature and put Guyana first.
“ANUG is of the view that this is the time for the two parties to meet to discuss not just setting a timeline for their own agendas…but in the interest of the nation, for the two sides to agree on a methodology going forward into the next elections for there to be inclusive governance, for both sides to have a say in how the country is run until the next electoral cycle,” ANUG executive, attorney Timothy Jonas told a press conference the party hosted at Duke Lodge, Kingston yesterday.
“This is the opportunity to introduce temporary measures, to experiment with a shared governance model that will carry us into the next elections so that those elections are held in a fair manner, in a manner that inspires our confidence [rather] than our distrust. That is what we need,” Jonas added.
The CCJ on Tuesday ruled that the no-confidence motion brought against the David Granger-led APNU+AFC administration was validly passed with the votes of 33 members of the 65-member National Assembly last December, thereby compelling the resignation of Cabinet and the holding of general elections. In addition, the court also ruled that the process used to unilaterally appoint Patterson as Chairman of GECOM was “flawed” and unconstitutional. The court held that Granger had no authority to introduce new eligibility requirements and should have given reasons for rejecting the 18 candidates submitted to him by Jagdeo.
Following the delivery of the summary of the court’s judgments by CCJ President Justice Adrian Saunders, the court scheduled a hearing for next Monday for the parties to decide among themselves the consequential orders to be made. The parties were also urged to agree on costs.
The court has, however, made it clear that while it intends to have the parties agree on consequential orders, it will intervene and make the necessary orders, if they are unable to arrive at any consensus.
Restores and upholds constitutionality
Yesterday, in a statement, ANUG said that the CCJ’s decision “restores and upholds constitutionality” in Guyana.
“The government has always insisted that it had a right to be heard in court, even to the extent of violating the Constitution. Now we hope that the final court having spoken, the government will swiftly adhere to the rule of law by agreeing to appoint a new chair of the elections commission from names provided by the Leader of the Opposition and dissolving the National Assembly and fixing a date for elections. The consequential orders of the CCJ should ensure that those are the actions that should flow from its decision,” it added.
Advocating a “bare bones” government, Jonas told the press conference that all policy decisions should be halted and contracts signing stopped. He said this was needed since if government resigned, it would put the country in a precarious position and cease delivery of needed services.
“We are in a field where we have been in for six months…After the no-confidence motion in December, there was a 90-day period within which we had to have elections. If everything had been done correctly, we would have had elections months ago. We lost sight of that but that is the reality. We have a government that is there three months over time but you can’t say arbitrarily that they must close up shop, lock their doors and walk out because the country needs to operate. So we are in a state of necessity. A state where the bare bones of government’s operations; public servants going to work, clerks doing their jobs, National Insurance Scheme handing out cheques, that has to go on,” he said.
“But the large policy decisions should not be made and in fact, the large policy decisions made within the past months are brought into question and it is unfortunate that within that period, large policy decisions have been made. The government doesn’t just close doors but the arms of the state that provides us a service must continue but what is important is a consensual approach moving forward to a fair elections,” he added.
Dares to dream
ANUG’s founding member Ralph Ramkarran SC emphasised that paramount among any decision either side makes is that the country should be put first. He said that while he dares to dream that a sensible compromise can be made, he knows that would not happen and it is why he believes that both sides would be forced to abide by final decisions made by the CCJ next Monday.
“The President and the Leader of the Opposition can agree that the 18 names that have been submitted so far are to be considered by the President for a nominee. He accepts the 18 names or some of them… among those who are not unacceptable, he has a sufficient number that he choose. They can also decide that the Leader of the Opposition submit a new list of names or they can enter into discussion on names of which they can agree of which six are not unacceptable, and then the Leader of the Opposition can submit those names for the consideration of the President. If they do not agree, then the CCJ will fix one of those names…they have already reiterated that the chairman was not constitutionally appointed and directed that the new chairman be appointed in accordance with the decision they have made. It is better to come to a conclusion than not to,” he said.
Ramkarran said that he understands that the President has spoken on the need to have a house-to-house registration process before a new election but says that he does not believe that this should be.
“House-to-house registration is not feasible at this time, not in our view. The parliament is not in lawful existence,” Ramkarran said. “According to the CCJ, the parliament should have been dissolved shortly after the NCM (no-confidence motion) was passed. It wasn’t. And it continued until this time unlawfully,” he added.
The CCJ, Ramkarran believes, will rule that the parliament be dissolved and he thinks that by just doing that, it would be enough as it would then be compulsory for an election to be held. It doesn’t have to rule anything else because once the parliament is dissolved, everything else just flows,” the former Speaker of the National Assembly said.
According to Ramkarran, GECOM should have always been in a state of readiness for an impromptu election as the Constitution has a no-confidence in government provision which means that should a government fall, an election must be held in 90 days.
“GECOM must always be ready because there is a no-confidence provision in the Constitution. That directs GECOM that it must be ready in three months and GECOM is ready. GECOM in its current form has existed since 1990. The law has been updated and taken into consideration all possibilities. So the law has provided for rapid elections to be held,” Ramkarran said.
