The Caribbean Court of Justice will on Thursday begin hearing submissions on a consolidated appeal seeking to bring final resolution to a constitutional crisis caused by the passage of a no-confidence motion in Guyana's National Assembly in December, last year.
The eagerly anticipated appeal is expected to begin at the CCJ's headquarters at Henry Street in Port-of-Spain at 10 am with a further hearing scheduled for Friday.
While the team of attorneys involved in the case participated in case management hearings using a video conference link on Wednesday with Guyana's Supreme Court, they will all have to be present at the court to the two hearings.
In March, CCJ President Adrian Saunders promised the parties that the court would deliberate and deliver a decision in the case within a short time of the hearings.
The case centers around the no-confidence motion in the coalition government led by President David Granger, which was passed by the 65 member assembly by a slim 33 to 32 majority on December 21, last year. The motion succeeded as former Government MP Charrandas Persaud controversially voted along with Opposition MPs based on moral grounds.
Following the motion, which effectively forced the Cabinet to resign and fresh elections to be held, Attorney General Basil Williams filed a High Court action against Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland, to determine if the motion was lawfully passed.
Persaud also filed an action challenging a subsequent decision to disqualify him as he holds Canadian citizenship.
Acting Chief Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire weighed in on the issue first and ruled that the motion was correctly passed although Persaud was illegally sitting as an MP due to his dual citizenship.
On March 22, the Court of Appeal overturned the judgement as Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Appellate Judge Dawn Gregory ruled that an absolute majority of 34 votes were required to pass the no-confidence motion.
Appellate Judge Rishi Persaud delivered a dissenting judgement in which he agreed with George-Wiltshire's previous judgement.
The appeal is being heard by the CCJ as Guyana is one of the few regional countries which have replaced the United Kingdom-based Privy Council as their final appellate court.
On Wednesday, the court heard a separate appeal, in which Opposition MP Zulfinkar Mustapha was challenging Granger's decision to appoint Reverend Justice James Patterson as chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission in October 2017.
The appeals have to be determined in and around the same time as if both are successful, a new chairman would have to be appointed to facilitate fresh general elections.
Jagdeo is being represented by a team of attorneys including Douglas Mendes, SC, Devesh Maharaj, Mohabir Anil Nandlall and Chandra Pratesh Satram and Kandace Bharath. Williams' legal team is being led by Eamon Courtenay, SC.