Constitutional reform to get underway soon – Nandlall

– expects full participation from stakeholders

After being delayed last year, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, has disclosed that the constitutional reform process will finally get underway soon.
He made this announcement during last week’s edition of his weekly programme, “Issues In The News”, during which he revealed that he has already requested for a meeting to be held with the Parliamentary Standing Committee For Constitutional Reform.
“We are going to start the constitutional reform process. It was stymied last year because of COVID and a number of other matters. But I have already requested the National Assembly Committees Division to fix a date for a meeting to be scheduled of the Constitutional Standing Committee on Constitutional Reform and from there, the process will begin to achieve momentum and we will have constitutional reform,” the Attorney General stated.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform was established under Article 119A of the Constitution, which states that “as soon as may be the beginning of each National Assembly there shall be appointed a Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform for the purpose of the continually reviewing the effectiveness of the working of the Constitution and making periodic reports there on to the National Assembly, with proposal for reform as necessary.”
It is noted that the Committee has the power to co-opt experts or enlist the aid of other persons of appropriate expertise, whether or not such experts or other persons are Members of the National Assembly, to assist in its work.
The Committee is expected to have no less than six or more than 10 members nominated by the Committee of Selection.
As it is, Nandlall is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Constitutional Reform and the other members consist of four Government MPs – Education Minister Priya Manickchand; Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr.; Public Service Minister Sonia Parag and Attorney-At-Law Sanjeev Datadin – as well as four members from the APNU/AFC Opposition – Khemraj Ramjattan, Raphael Trotman, Dr Nicolette Henry, and Amanza Walton-Desir.
Nevertheless, with consultations slated to get commence this year, Nandlall expressed his hope that there will be widespread participation by stakeholders from all quarters.
“…All these organisations that are making all these grand and big pronouncements, I hope that they will participate in the process so that we can have a healthy consultative exercise in relation to constitutional reform and the exercise can produce some solid recommendations that we can move forward with,” the Legal Affairs Minister asserted.
President Dr Irfaan Ali has previously declared that the constitutional reforms “must come from the people” hence there will be extensive public consultations.
The need for constitutional, and more so electoral, reforms was underscored following the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections, which led to five-month tumultuous impasse. This was as a result of concerted efforts by the former governing APNU/AFC coalition regime and some officials from the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to sway the results.
However, the Election Commission last August terminated former Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield, his Deputy Roxanne Myers and Returning Officer for Region Four Clairmont Mingo for their role in this. The trio is currently before the courts facing electoral fraud charges.
Meanwhile, the PPP/C Government, in November last, published the first set of draft electoral reforms with proposed changes to the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) for public consultation before the document is finalised and taken to the National Assembly.
However, there has been a series of commentary that more needs to be added to the proposed changes. But AG Nandlall had explained that the reform process is two-fold with this first component dealing exclusively with changes to ROPA, that is, the process from the time a date for the election is propagated or proclaimed by the President until the declaration of final results.
The other component, he noted, will deal with the registration of electors, from the time the registration process begins until the Claims and Objections (C&O) exercise.
An overhaul of the country’s electoral laws can see the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) facing as much as life imprisonment for committing fraud while others can similarly face hefty fines and jail time for any related offences.
The draft updated electoral laws also outline a clear process for the request of a recount, including empowering the Chairman of GECOM to grant that request.
Under the proposed laws, the CEO must post the District Tabulation Forms on the Commission’s website as soon as he receives them from the Returning Officers.
Other persons involved in the electoral process can face fines as high as $10 million and can equally be jailed for life if they breach any provisions as outlined in the proposed updated Act.