It would be instructive for all citizens to examine where the nation and its prospects rest today after the epochal events of the last nine months.
On December 21st, 2018 a motion of no-confidence was passed against the government after the APNU+AFC MP Charrandass Persaud voted with the opposition PPP/C. Whether his vote was as a result of treachery, conscience or some other motivation is not significant in light of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling upholding the validity of his action.
What is of much greater significance is that the Government of Guyana fell on the night of December 21st, 2018 meaning that there is no Cabinet in existence and that President Granger has functioned in a caretaker capacity for more than nine months and this state of limited authority could continue for at least another five months. This is the type of governance record that all Guyanese should shudder at.
Also of equal importance is the reckoning drawn from the Constitution of Guyana that with general elections not having been held within three months of December 21st, 2018 or three months of June 18th, 2019 when the CCJ upheld the validity of the motion of no confidence, the government does not even have the cloak of constitutional recognition.
It had been aware of this jeopardy through the clear meanings and words of the constitution but refused to face the facts in its misguided tryst with staying in office at all cost. General and Regional Elections were mandatory within three months of the motion of no confidence unless an extension was approved by two-thirds of the National Assembly and having failed to arrive at a concordat with the opposition PPP/C, that window of opportunity has now been closed and in whatever capacity it functions at present the government is doing so unconstitutionally.
This state of unconstitutionality has not only been declared by partisans and ordinary citizens. It has been underlined by none other than the Bar Council of the Guyana Bar Association and had earlier been declared so by the US, UK and the European Union, major partners of Guyana. The Commonwealth has also arrived at this conclusion. The stances taken by these organisations will have residual impact and suffuse deliberations at many international fora, within multilateral financial institutions and the viewpoints of other states even if CARICOM remains at a loss for words. By its own contorted calculus and reckless gambling in the various tiers of the court, the APNU+AFC government has pushed itself into a state of de-recognition and there will be adverse consequences for the country. It is all the more important therefore why nothing must stand in the way of general elections on March 2, 2020. This undertaking falls to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Unfortunately, GECOM has been used to provide the basis for unnecessarily delaying elections and introducing significant doubt about its transparency and fairness. President Granger has reimagined the Constitution by letting GECOM decide when elections can be held. Instead of the President naming a date for elections and requiring GECOM to comply it is now the other way around. It is a clever arrangement. President Granger achieved major influence in the activities of GECOM when he made the unilateral, unconstitutional appointment of retired Justice James Patterson as Chairman. Between the filing of court actions and the inactivity of GECOM nothing transpired for months after the motion of no confidence. It was as if the three-month constitutional clock was merely an annoyance for the President and GECOM Chair to disregard. Following the finding of the CCJ that Justice Patterson’s appointment was null and void, a new Chair, Justice (Rtd) Claudette Singh was appointed.
Instead of immediately recognising the constitutional imperative of elections within three months of June 18th after she was appointed on July 29th, Justice Singh allowed the clock to wind down and then later capitulated to the demand of the government-appointed elections commissioners and elections secretariat for general elections to be held not until the end of February 2020. This period seems intended to give APNU+AFC the advantage of time and the opportunity of using events such as the 50th anniversary of republicanism for electoral advantage. The decision of the majority on GECOM is ultra vires the Constitution of Guyana and GECOM must now be considered to be in the same plight as the government, in breach of constitutional governance.
All eyes will now be on Justice Singh, a newcomer to elections management, to ensure that she and her commissioners comply punctiliously with failsafe measures to ensure free and fair General and Regional Elections on March 2nd, 2020. GECOM must publish for all of the public to see, the schedule of the various tasks leading up to the elections date, areas for potential slippage and how these will be mitigated, the measures that will be taken to ensure confidence in the electoral system and a robust public education programme. GECOM must also ensure the mobilisation and acceptance of whatever aid is necessary from the international community to ensure that the elections are above reproach.
Effectively, the caretaker government and GECOM have combined to deny the Guyanese electorate early elections in accordance with the constitution. Parliament is effectively stranded in a netherworld and will have no credibility even if it is made to convene a sitting. This reality will deny the nation the opportunity for bipartisan work on any number of critical pieces of legislation for the oil and gas sector. That Guyana will enter its first oil production year without a viable Parliament and the requisite suite of regulatory legislation and regulations is intransigence at stratospheric levels.
What will the government do over the next five months? What it shouldn’t do is abuse its barely-there incumbency. It should not be conducting itself in a manner which exposes naked vote-imploring handouts. It must continue to perform the vital functions connected to sovereignty, state security, functioning of ministries and the gamut of services it offers. It must not, however, further abuse the privilege of remaining in office for another five months having fallen on December 21, 2018.
