Parliament should be considered automatically dissolved given the constitutionally mandated period for general elections, according to former two-term Speaker of the National Assembly Ralph Ramkarran.
In his column in the Sunday Stabroek yesterday entitled `I’ll stop Boris Johnson breaking the law, says the British Speaker. But who will stop APNU+AFC from doing the same?’ , Ramkarran pointed out that the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) had ruled that general elections should have already been held by March 21st this year. Abidance by that date would have seen the 11th parliament being dissolved sometime before. This did not occur as President David Granger’s government challenged the validity of the December 21, 2018 motion of no confidence.
Ramkarran, who played a key role in the reform of the Constitution between 1999 and 2001, said “The latest possible time on the most generous interpretation of the CCJ’s ruling is that elections should have been held by September 18. But the CCJ did say that elections ought to have been held by March 21 after the passage of the no-confidence motion on December 21. It means that by March 21, no National Assembly ought to have been in existence. It ought to have been dissolved long before that date in preparation for the elections. Even allowing for the later date of September 18, which is coming Wednesday, the National Assembly should have been already dissolved”.
He noted that the dissolution of Guyana’s Parliament occurs in two ways – by a proclamation by the President or automatically, five years from the date when the Assembly first meets after any dissolution.
“The President’s discretion is absolute only in one respect, that is, if he wishes to call elections before the time is due. The President has no discretion where elections are lawfully due. He/She would normally dissolve the Parliament when elections are lawfully due. But if he/she does not, the Assembly would automatically dissolve at the time set out above”, Ramkarran argued.
He noted that Article 106 of the constitution, which provides for elections in three months (or longer if Parliament extends the time) after a no-confidence motion, does not make allowance for a dissolution.
Stabroek News made several attempts to contact Speaker Scotland at Parliament Office over recent days to discuss the matter of the life of Parliament to no avail. On Monday, September 9th, the Speaker was approached by a Stabroek News reporter at the Marriott Hotel on the occasion of the reception for the Liza Destiny but declined to comment on the matter.
Last week, the Parliament Office sent out a notification for the handing over of the Auditor General’s report on September 30th.
Article 70 (3) of the Constitution says that “Parliament, unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for five years from the date when the Assembly first meets after any dissolution and shall then stand dissolved”.
President Granger has said that there will be no dissolution of parliament or the naming of the date of an election until he is advised by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) of its preparedness. This matter has now been with the new Chair of GECOM, retired justice Claudette Singh since July 29th.
