GEORGETOWN, March 26 (NNN-CARIBBEANNEWS) — The Guyana court of appeal overturned the Dec 21, 2018, no confidence vote brought in Guyana’s National Assembly by opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo.
The court of appeal judgment also reversed the Jan 31, 2019, ruling of Chief Justice Roxanne George, which upheld the no confidence vote.
The motion of no confidence was introduced in the National Assembly by former president and opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo. The vote was 33 to 32 against the APNU+AFC coalition government.
Then government member of Parliament, Charrandas Persaud, allegedly accepted a multi-million US dollar bribe from the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) and voted with the opposition against his own government.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr Barton Scotland, on Jan 3, 2019, ruled that the motion was validly passed, and the chief justice rejected a legal challenge and upheld the vote.
However, the court of appeal by a majority decision ruled that the chief justice erred, as the motion required 34 votes to meet the constitutional mandate of an absolute majority. Consequently, the motion was not validly passed and was unconstitutional.
The court comprised Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Justice Dawn Gegroy and Justice Rishi Persaud. Justice Persaud dissented.
The case will now move on appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and, according to chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, if the CCJ rules that the no-confidence motion was validly passed with 33 votes, a consequential order would also be issued for general elections to be held by a certain time and validate acts under the doctrine of necessity. — NNN-CARIBBEANNEWS