AG refuses to deny allegations that Govt knows how CCJ will rule

Sovereignty of the People case

…declines to comment

By Michael Younge

Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Basil Williams on Wednesday refused to deny allegations made by his Cabinet colleagues which have created public discomfort after they suggested that the Government of Guyana had inside knowledge of how the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) would rule in the Sovereignty of the People case which it heard earlier this year.

Williams, who is in Miami, when contacted by Guyana Times to respond categorically to the statements made by his colleagues by denying them, bluntly refused even though such a response could have potentially put to rest the concerns that were raised in certain quarters of society about the impact the statements made by the Ministers could have on the credibility of the ruling by the CCJ.
He reaffirmed that he was “confident of the case because how I did the case”.
He urged this newspaper to “go to the CCJ website and listen to the arguments” before declining to deny the public utterances of Vice President and Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan, who is also the Chairman of the Alliance For Change (AFC) party, and the utterances of several other Government officials.
Ramjattan had also reportedly told several People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) parliamentarians that he knew how the CCJ would rule in the matter.
“I am not addressing that issue. I’ve always been a confident man,” Williams stated during the interview.
Williams was also reported by the Government’s Department of Public Information as defending the CCJ against alleged attacks from the PPP which he described as “deplorable” even though the PPP has stayed away from making any definitive statements about the case.
Just last week, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo reluctantly said that the credibility of the CCJ ruling could be undermined by loose talk when he was hounded by the media for a comment on the allegations that have been surfacing in Guyana and further afield following the statements made by Minister Ramjattan and others and reported in the media.
At a recent political meeting held in Berbice, Ramjattan alleged that the CCJ would rule against the third term case. The Minister told his party supporters that Jagdeo would never be allowed the opportunity to run for another term in office as President. Similar statements were made by a number of other senior Government Ministers.
“I don’t know whether it’s loose talk or they do have inside information as they say, but either way this could affect the credibility of the court,” Jagdeo had stated.
Meanwhile, it was widely reported in the media that the judicial assistant to the current CCJ President, Sir Dennis Byron is the grandson of the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and former advisor to the President, retired Justice James Patterson.
Asked whether he is concerned about this, Jagdeo responded in the affirmative. He said, “It does bother me for the same reasons I gave about Ramjattan and Basil Williams who claim they know how the court will rule on this matter. It goes back to the credibility of the court.”
Pressed a bit further to state whether he would be willing to run for President if the CCJ upheld the ruling of the two lower courts, Jagdeo said, “Having to go to cocktail receptions and accrediting Ambassadors and having courtesy calls and a whole range of those things that goes with the presidency like cutting ribbons and so, don’t attract me. I don’t have any desire to be part of them. What I have great desire to do, is to ensure that people’s lives, their welfare change…You figure out for yourself what I just said,” he told the media.
Jagdeo went on to state that his current and most important function is General Secretary of the PPP. His main objective in that position is to prepare the Party for Government, while broadening the ethnic composition of the PPP, which is predominantly Amerindian and Indo-Guyanese.
In 2014, private citizen Cedric Richardson had filed the challenge, arguing that Act 17 of 2001, which was passed by a two-thirds majority of the National Assembly, unconstitutionally curtailed and restricted his sovereign and democratic right and freedom as a qualified elector to elect a former President as the Executive President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
Contending that the limit was unconstitutional and illegal, Richardson also wanted the court to determine whether a referendum should not have been held, instead of the two-thirds majority in the National Assembly having the power to decide to limit the number of terms.
The other restrictions were: to also declare unqualified to run for the presidency citizens of Guyana not resident in Guyana on Nomination Day; citizens of Guyana resident in Guyana on Nomination Day but who have not been continuously resident in Guyana for seven years prior to that date; and citizens of Guyana by registration.
After several months in the court, former Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang ruled in favour of Richardson’s argument, saying that the term limit on presidents is unconstitutional without the approval of the people through a referendum.
However, the decision did not sit well with the Attorney General and former Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman, both of whom were named respondents in the court action. They asked that the ruling be “wholly set aside”, but the Appeals Court also upheld the High Court’s decision as it felt that a decision on the term limit rested with the people via a referendum, and not the National Assembly. It sought to impress the point that people should choose whom they “please to govern them,” and noted that this was essential to all other rights.
During the February 2017 decision, then Chief Justice (ag) Yonette Cummings-Edwards, who also sat on the panel, was the only one that had given a dissenting judgement.
The matter was then taken to the Trinidad-based CCJ, which heard the case on Monday, March 12. A decision could be made at some point during this year.