‘Due observance of constitutional democracy and the rule of law in Guyana rests, in large measure, with the conduct of the various branches of government, that is, the President and the Cabinet, the Parliament and the Judiciary. All must be faithful to the spirit and letter of the Constitution and operate within the parameters given to each by the Constitution. … It is not, for example, the role of the Court to establish a date on or by which the elections must be held, or to lay down timelines and deadlines that, in principle, are the preserve of political actors guided by constitutional imperatives’ ([2019] CCJ 14 (AJ).
The Constitution, then, has two components: the ‘spirit’ and the ‘letter,’ both of which must be skillfully combined to deliver an authentic interpretation. Most of what we have been hearing in relations to the timing of elections and the ongoing house-to-house registration process focus upon the ‘letter’ of the Constitution, so let us attempt here to account for both the ‘spirit’ and the ‘letter.’ We know what the written Constitution is, but what constitutes its ‘spirit’ and how should it be accounted for?