Jagdeo: Not interested in third term or any jobs in Guyana
February 5, 2015 | By chris | Filed Under News, Source - Kaieteur News
It is final. Former President Bharrat Jagdeo says he will not take up any jobs in Guyana anytime soon.
A court case filed this week raised the spectre of Jagdeo making a bid to once again become President, despite laws which bar the former Head of State from seeking a third term.
Not interested in third term: Bharrat Jagdeo
Jagdeo ended his two consecutive terms in office in 2011, handing the reins of a minority Government to President Donald Ramotar, following General and Regional Elections in 2011.
Since then, there were attempts to explore the possibilities of him returning. His supporters used flyers and even billboards. Jagdeo had denied he was interested.
Yesterday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, made it clear that Jagdeo remains committed to not pursuing any further appointment to elected constitutional office or posts in Guyana.
According to Luncheon, the statement from Jagdeo is in direct response to the deliberate attempts to create uncertainty at this particular point in time by the filing of the constitutional motion that essentially seeks to void the constitutional amendment that limits the term of office of Guyanese Presidents.
Jagdeo, in the statement read by Dr. Luncheon during his weekly press post-Cabinet press briefings, disclosed “his disinterest in the matter, and his firm resolution not to entertain further constitutional posts”.
The spokesman said that for the former President it is a matter of principle which is consistent with his earlier declarations to “all and sundry concerning this matter”.
Answering questions, Luncheon said that the Constitutional Amendment in 2001, which resulted in the term limits being agreed to, arose out of a “historic time”, in the evolution of the return to democracy to Guyana.
“If the argument is that we have matured and that amendment needs to be dispensed with, one would have to do a similar such process that led to the amendment to consider a similar such approach. I would want to believe that to the extent that we believe and we verily do, that the constitutional amendments are enforceable and indeed have been in force over the decades of the term in office of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic”.
He noted that even in the absence of formal Cabinet declaration, its attitude to the current constitutional provision “indeed remains unaltered”.
A motion challenging the constitutional provision was brought by a Georgetown resident, Cedric Richardson. Guyana’s Constitution states that a person elected as President after the year 2000 is eligible for re-election only once.
According to the case drawn up by Attorneys-at-Law Mr. Shaun Allicock, Oneidge Walrond-Allicock, Emily Dodson and Coleen Sparman, Richardson says he is a qualified elector. He argued that Act No. 17 of 2001 which was passed by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly unconstitutionally curtails and restricts his sovereign and democratic rights and freedom as a qualified elector to elect former President Jagdeo as the Executive President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
He wanted the court to determine whether that act of 2001 was unconstitutional and in compliance with Article 164 (2) (b) of the Constitution and whether it restricted and curtailed the democratic rights and freedom of the electorate by eliminating Jagdeo from participating in elections as a Presidential Candidate.
Richardson wants the court to also answer the question whether a referendum should not have been held instead of the National Assembly having the powers to decide to limit the number of terms of a President to two.
