Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday gave notice that if government fails to hold general elections by September 18th, the opposition party would ignore all of its claims to legitimacy after that time.
“Let me make it clear… as to how we will see the government after September 18th and that is that it ceases… [the government] will be a usurper and cannot claim (doctrine of) necessity, because it will be self- imposed,” Jagdeo told a press conference.
“We are making it clear that the government doesn’t have any legitimacy [then]. As a matter of fact, constitutional rule stops on that day in Guyana,” he added. Jagdeo expressed disappointment that nearly one month after the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) made its ruling on the December 21st no-confidence motion that was passed against the government, the Cabinet still had not resigned in keeping with the Constitution.
Jagdeo read from a letter, dated August 5th, where President David Granger told him that he will not be resigning. “It is my considered opinion that the Caribbean Court of Justice did not issue orders that I should dissolve the National Assembly, fix a date for General and Regional Elections and that I should resign from the Office of President,” Granger wrote in his letter. “I shall not, therefore, accede to your request,” he added.
Article 106 (6) of the Constitution says Cabinet, including the President, shall resign if the government is defeated by the vote of a majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence.
Article 106 (7) adds that notwithstanding its defeat, the government shall remain in office “and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the elections.”
Jagdeo said that the CCJ made it clear that the Constitution is unambiguous and “every sane Guyanese knows that means elections in three months.”
He said that his party would also not go to the National Assembly to extend any time. “We will not extend. The reason is they have already been extended since March. The court ruling was clear. But when the president says it is my claim… this is not about who you support, this is about sanity and decency,” he stressed.
Granger and his APNU+AFC Cabinet are following the directions of Attorney General Basil Williams and will not be resigning until such time that a new government and president are sworn in, Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency Joseph Harmon had explained on Wednesday.
Both Granger and Williams have declined to make public the advice proffered. Williams has also declared to the High Court that the CCJ ruling on the no-confidence motion does not require Cabinet, including the president, to resign.
In an affidavit filed by Deputy Solicitor-General Deborah Kumar on behalf of Williams in the challenge brought by Christopher Ram against the ongoing house-to-house registration exercise, it is argued that “the Court has never expressly or by implication ordered the Cabinet or the President to resign.”
Government has stated that it accepts its interim status and respects the decision of the CCJ but has maintained that Cabinet is still functioning, without explaining the inconsistency of that position with Article 106(6). Further, the president maintains that he first has to be advised by the Guyana Elections Commission of its readiness for elections.
Critics have said Article 106(6) automatically triggers the resignation of the Cabinet, which is defined by the Constitution as comprising the President, Prime Minister, Vice Presidents and Ministers, upon the passage of a no confidence vote, and that by not resigning, the president and Cabinet are violating the Constitution. Jagdeo maintains that the Attorney General is giving the president flawed advice and that Granger knows this but is using it for his own purposes.
“The president relies on the … illogic of his Attorney General. I am sure he knows what the right thing is but he hides behind the institution of this public official to give an almost perverse [reading] of the constitution. He has decided to say I am not complying with the constitution,” Jagdeo said. Jagdeo also made it clear that his party simply wants the president to abide by the Constitution and resign as a member of Cabinet, along with the relevant ministers. “We never requested the president resign…we never asked for the president to resign as President of Guyana. We are asking him to resign as a member of Cabinet,” he explained.
