Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire’s judgment in the house-to-house registration case is now available and is accompanied by an order underlining that it would be unconstitutional to remove the names of registered persons unless they are disqualified.
This is seen as a key part of the ruling in the case brought by Christopher Ram and may force the abandonment of the current house-to-house registration (HtH).
The Guyana Elections Commission has been awaiting the written judgment before taking a decision on the way forward with HtH.
A statement from Anil Nandlall follows:
The written judgment of Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire, in the case filed by Christopher Ram, is now available. Significantly, in addition to the written Judgement, the learned Chief Justice issued an accompanying “Order of Court”. One of those Orders read thus:
“This Court further Orders that the declaration sought for the house to house registration exercise currently being conducted by the Guyana Elections Commission, Chief Elections Officer and/or the Commissioner of National Registration is illegal, unlawful, ultra vires, unconstitutional, null void and of no effect is not granted in that the said exercise is not of itself unlawful or unconstitutional however that the removal of the names of persons who are already on the list of registrants and who were not, or have not been, or are not registered in the current house to house registration exercise with a consequence of non-inclusion in the list of electors, would be unconstitutional, unless they are deceased or disqualified pursuant to Article 159(2) with the safeguards for removal of the names of persons pursuant to the National Registration Act, Chapter 19:08 to be strictly complied with.”
This specific Order of the learned Chief Justice should put, conclusively to rest, the reckless contention by the Attorney General that the learned Chief Justice did not grant such an Order but instead, made a “statement”to this effect.
In the circumstances, there should be no more doubt that the house to house registration process should be immediately aborted and GECOM should proceed swiftly to refresh the current list of electors by a suitable cycle of Claims and Objections.
Having regard to the uncanny similarities, in recent times, between positions advocated for by the Government and decisions made by the Chief Elections Officer and the Secretariat, the Commission should vigorously interrogate all time-frames being proposed by the Chief Elections Officer and the Secretariat, in terms of a work plan, because, in keeping with the current trend, those work plans will most likely coincide with a December 2019 elections, the very time-frame which Government Ministers are announcing country wide.
The current constitutional matrix mandates elections to have been held by March 21, 2019. These elections are now six months overdue. GECOM is duty bound to be ready to hold them as early as possible.