Ralph Ramkarran

Challenges to transparency in Government have attracted public comment in the past two weeks.

Many Guyanese are in despair arising out of the current political deadlock and the failure of our politicians to resolve it.

As is now well known, the Constitution makes no distinction between a ‘simple’ and an ‘absolute’ majority.

Miles Greeves Fitzpatrick was born on the 12th January, 1936. His parents were the late Maxwell and Millicent Fitzpatrick.

President Granger last Friday said that “the Government is conducting its affairs in accordance with the Constitution and with respect for the rule of law.”

The meetings last week between the President and the Leader of the Opposition and the President and the Guyana Elections Commission did not yield a solution to the impending constitutional crisis that has been dominating the news in recent weeks.

Guyanese can be excused for being baffled at the latest developments in the current political saga gripping the nation.

The crisis facing Guyana, due to get worse on March 22nd, when the Government loses its legal authority, was not the result of the actions of evil people.

The statement issued by the Bar Council of the Guyana Bar Association during last week quoted a dictum of the Chief Justice (ag) in the case of Attorney General of Guyana v Dr.

I usually post these articles on Facebook on Saturday evenings. Articles dealing with political issues usually attract a great deal of comment.

The Chief Justice ruled that the no confidence motion was lawfully passed on December 21st in the National Assembly by a 33-32 vote, and that the vote of Charrandass Persaud was lawful, notwithstanding that as a dual citizen he was unlawfully occupying his seat in the National Assembly.

By virtue of the now familiar Article 106(7) of the Constitution of Guyana, elections are due to be held within three months of the passage of a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly on December 21, 2018, that is, by the end of March.

Contradicting what appears to be the unanimous prevailing view that dual citizenship prohibits a Guyanese from being a member of the National Assembly, Counsel in the case brought by Christopher Ram argues to the contrary.

In a lengthy article, “Countries at the Crossroads 2011: Guyana,” written for “Freedom House” before the general elections of that year, Assistant Professor Joan Mars, of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice of the University of Michigan-Flint, said: “Elections are constitutionally due to be held in 2011.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, having declined to reverse his declaration on December 21, 2018, that the no confidence motion against the Government had been carried on a vote of 33-32 in favour, has shifted the arena of contest to the Court.

Both the President and Prime Minister accepted the outcome of the confidence vote.

What transpired in the National Assembly on Friday evening was always a distinct possibility, with the Government’s one seat majority.

A scathing editorial in the Kaieteur News last Friday shockingly castigated Members of Parliament in most unparliamentary language, from which the title of this piece is taken.

Why has the Government failed to proceed with constitutional reform to implement the proposals contained in its manifesto for the 2015 general elections?

At the Georgetown mayoral elections on November 30, AFC Councillor Michael Leonard was nominated by his lone colleague.