Guyanese citizens will have to wait on the final judgement of a consolidated appeal seeking to bring final resolution to a constitutional crisis caused by the passage of a no-confidence motion in the country’s National Assembly in December, last year.
Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) President Adrian Saunders and his four colleagues reserved their judgement after attorneys in the case completed their voluminous submissions before them at the CCJ’s headquarters at Henry Street in Port-of-Spain, between Thursday and Friday.
In the appeal, lawyers representing the country’s Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, ousted government member Charrandas Persaud and social activist Christopher Ram challenged the decision of Guyana’s Court of Appeal to strike down the controversial motion, which was passed by a slim 33 to 32 majority in December, last year.
They suggested that the Appeal Court got it wrong when it stated that the formula for calculating the majority for the motion was dividing the number of assembly members by two, rounding off and adding one. They suggest a simple majority as was taken last year was all that was required.
In addition to the issue of calculating the majority, the parties also presented lengthy submissions on Persaud’s validity as an assembly member and his ability to vote against the government in the motion based on his dual citizenship with Canada.
In response, lawyers representing Guyana’s Attorney General Basil Williams, political activist Compton Reid and Minister of State in the Office of President Joseph Harmon, contended that the Court of Appeal was correct in its majority ruling.
In the event, that the appeal is allowed, the CCJ is expected to hear further submissions from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) over its ability to facilitate an election.
GECOM has previously claimed that hat it could only facilitate it by October and November due to financial issues and delays in compiling a new voters list.