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Caribbean L 14 ife, June 21–27, 2019 BQ
President of Guyana, David Arthur Granger.
Associated Press / Seth Wenig
McManus
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By Bert Wilkinson
The Trinidad-based Caribbean
Court of Justice (CCJ),
Guyana’s highest, ruled this
week that Guyana’s government
was properly toppled when one
of its own lawmakers voted
with the opposition to defeat
the government in a stunning
no confidence motion sponsored
by the opposition back in
late December.
There was nation-wide
political controversy after Parliamentary
Speaker Barton
Scotland had ruled that the
33 votes the People’s Progressive
Party (PPP) had garnered
at the marathon house sitting
on Dec.21 were enough for the
no confidence motion to pass
and to bring down the government.
Instead of resigning and preparing
for elections in the mandatory
90 days, government
turned to the courts, arguing
that the PPP needed 34 rather
than 33 vote to pass the motion
as half of the 65 seats was 32.5
so that figure needed to be
rounded up to 33 and then one
added to make it 34.
But the panel of judges in
Trinidad saw it differently and
ruled that the motion was validly
passed. Government had
first appealed the 33 vote parliamentary
ruling to the local
high court, which had sided
with Speaker Scotland. Once
it lost, it approached the Guyanese
appeals court and won
a reprieve as two of the three
judges said that an absolute,
rather than simple majority, of
34 was needed for the motion
to succeed. This pushed the
PPP to take the case to the CCJ,
Guyana’s highest, and it won
hands down.
The governing coalition of
retired army general David
Granger had been running the
country with a wafer-thin, one
seat majority since winning
general elections back in May
of 2015. Like everyone else, the
PPP knew that all it needed in a
no confidence voting scenario
is for one defection. They got it
through government lawmaker
Charrandass Persaud
Charrandass Persaud said
yes when it was his turn to vote,
triggering bedlam and pandemonium
on the government
benches. Lawmakers moaned
and groaned, cried openly and
pleaded unsuccessfully with
him to change his vote.
He fled to Canada hours
after amid accusations that
he had taken a US$1 million
bribe to so vote, charges he has
denied on social media postings.
Police are investigating
the allegations.
“The national assembly had
properly passed” the motion
Court President Justice Adrian
Sanders said, reading for a prepared
executive summary. The
court had back in May heard
arguments from both sides in
what is clearly the toughest
case the CCJ’s panel has been
forced to adjudicate in since its
inception more than a decade
ago.
The CCJ had also been asked
to determine whether Persaud,
as a dual Guyanese-Canadian
citizen, was legally allowed to
vote as those who swear allegiance
to a foreign power are
ineligible to be a lawmaker.
The court ruled that those who
are against such should have
long filed an election petition
to local courts no later than 28
days after results were declared
and after MPs were identified
and named.
In yet another ruling that the
Granger administration lost,
the panel ruled that Granger
had erred in appointing Elections
Commission Chairman
James Patterson without any
input from the opposition. As
required by law, the opposition
is required to submit nominees
for the position. Granger had
rejected three consecutive lists
from the PPP. The judges said
the appointment “was flawed.”
Caribbean court says Guyana
government properly toppled
Continued on Page 58
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