Jagdeo’s two-term challenge comes up on Elections Day
May 5, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under News, Source
While most of Guyana will be caught up in the buzz of General and Regional elections next Monday, the Georgetown High Court will have its own showdown as the constitutional challenge to interpret Guyana’s two-term limit for the presidency is set to continue.
Bharrat Jagdeo
The May 11 continuation will see the second respondent to the case, Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman, making his submissions into the matter.
Yesterday in the chambers of Acting Chief Justice Ian Chang, the submissions of the applicants and one respondent was laid over.
According to Prithima Kissoon, who is representing Attorney General Anil Nandlall, Justice Chang is planning to give his decision into the case on May 12.
Nandlall had been named as the other respondent along with Trotman. The AG has already filed an affidavit in response to the challenge.
The matter will commence on Elections Day at 11:00am.
The motion was filed in early February by Attorneys-at-Law Oneidge Walrond-Allicock, Emily Dodson and Coleen Sparma on behalf of Georgetown resident, Cedric Richardson. The application by Richardson was seeking an interpretation of the provisions in the constitution regarding the two-term limit for the Guyana presidency.
According to details emerging from the case, Richardson said that he is a qualified elector and 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.
Richardson indicated that he wanted the court to determine whether that act of 2001 was unconstitutional and in compliance with Article 164 (2) (b) of the Constitution. He further questioned whether it restricted and curtailed the democratic rights and freedom of the electorate by eliminating Jagdeo from participating in elections as a presidential candidate.
Furthermore, Richardson also wants the court to 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.
In 2000, the Guyana Constitution Reform Commission recommended a maximum of two terms in office for a President.
The laws of Guyana were changed in 2001, and assented by former President Bharrat Jagdeo himself, making it clear that “A person elected as President after the year 2000 is eligible for re-election only once.
