Dear Editor,
In the written Judgement of the Honourable Justices Saunders, Wit, Hayton, Anderson and Rajnauth-Lee delivered on the 12 day of July 2019, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) at item “[6]” expressly states:
“Given the passage of the no confidence motion on 21 December 2018, a general election should have been held in Guyana by 21 March 2019 unless a two thirds majority in the National Assembly has resolved to extend that period. The National Assembly is yet to extend the period. The filing of the court proceedings in January challenging the validity of the no confidence vote effectively placed matters on pause, but this Court rendered its decision on 18 June 2019. There is no appeal from that judgement.”
Please refer to http:// www.ccj.org/wp-content/ uploads/2019/07/2019-CCJ-14-AJ.pdf
As a nation our stability and peaceful co-existence are largely dependent on avoiding the wrong approach in dealing with critical issues of national import. There has been no “edict” or “order” from the CCJ as to the date an election can be held. In fact, item “[7]” in that ruling says:
“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 the political actors guided by constitutional imperatives. The Court must assume that these bodies and personages will exercise their responsibilities with integrity and in keeping with the unambiguous provisions of the Constitution bearing in mind that the no confidence motion was validly passed as long ago as 21 December 2018”.
We are all entitled to our political bias(es) but misrepresenting or skewing the CCJ’s ruling poses clear and present threat to us as a nation and people. On this issue it must matter not to us which side of the ethnic, political or other divide/diversity we consider ourselves to be, but what is the ruling of the CCJ and how we proceed consistent with same. The Rule of Law is supreme and we must not flinch in holding it sacrosanct. In these trying times we need each other and must proceed through this period in a manner that will weld rather than divide us, reduce rather than escalate tensions between and amongst us.
Yours faithfully,
Lincoln Lewis
Editor’s note: While the CCJ did not set a date for elections it is clear even from the passages rendered by Mr Lewis that the court recognised the constitutional injunction that the elections must be held within three months of a successful motion of no confidence – in this case extended up to June 18 as a result of court challenges – unless there was an extension by two-thirds of the National Assembly. A time frame for elections has been prescribed by the constitution and this must be followed by the government and GECOM.