Edghill to step down from ERC

Nov 23, 2011 News

– as injunction dismissed

The injunction and a Conservatory Order which was granted by the High Court earlier this year, “directing and ordering” three men from “holding themselves out as Chairman and members” of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), were officially dismissed yesterday by Justice Diana Insanally.
The court order was issued by High Court Judge James Bovell-Drakes to stop the three defendants, Bishop Juan Anthony Edghill, John P. Willems and Carvil Duncan from taking any decisions, making any recommendations or issuing any directions in the name of the Commission.
In May this year, Opposition leader Robert Corbin secured, ex-parte, an injunction against the Ethnic Relations Commission barring the Chairman and two Commissioners from taking any decision, making any recommendation and issuing any direction on behalf of the constitutional body.

Juan Edghill

An ex- parte injunction is a restraining court order granted after only one party is heard in matters of great urgency, without notice to the defendant or other parties.
The court also granted an order to have the current Commissioners and Chairman of the ERC refund to the state all monies they collected after August 2007 when the life of the Commission expired.
But at a press conference yesterday, Bishop Juan Edghill told reporters that the ERC was fully aware of the plans that were being executed to ensure that the entity was not functioning for this year’s elections.
“At the appropriate time when the written judgment is ready, you will discover that there was no basis for such an action to be filed and be granted in the first place. The judge said clearly Mr. Corbin claimed that the ERC was unconstitutional since 2007. You can’t wait four years when an election is approaching. Interlocutory injunctions and ex-parte applications are in matters of emergency. There was no emergency for four years that you waited until May to come and file such an injunction and she also said the conservatories orders that were granted ought not to be granted, so that means it has all been discharged,” Edghill.
“We knew that there was a diabolical plot to ensure that ERC is not in place, and all that happened is that Mr. Corbin became a front person to use the courts as a way of seeking to get that end achieved. It was the plan of the PNCR and those in opposition who wanted to perpetuate the racist agenda in this election to ensure that the ERC was not in play, and the court was being used as a way of tying up the commission from doing its work.”
Edghill further stated that a dilemma was created since he is a candidate for this year’s General Elections even though there isn’t any rule which exists that prevents him from serving in the office of the ERC at the same time.
He noted that he will neither be interfering with the ERC nor making any decisions on behalf of the ERC during this period of election.
Kaieteur News was told that due to the lengthy period that the injunction was effective, there are some administrative matters that are still pending, but as soon as these are concluded, Bishop Edghill will exclude himself permanently from performing the roles as Chairman of the ERC.
In the writ, Corbin claimed that the defendants’ terms of office had expired in August 2007 pursuant to Article 212B (4), of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. He said the men, who are unlawfully styling themselves as Chairman and members of the ERC, are not duly constituted members, citing the Constitution again.
He also deemed the convening of meetings by the men after August 2007 as unlawful and a breach of the provisions of Article 212B (1) of the Constitution.
Corbin claimed that all meetings convened by the defendants after January 2009 in the name of the ERC lacked a quorum and all decisions made by them purporting to be decisions of the ERC were unlawfully taken in breach of the provisions of Articles 212F (2) and Article 226 (5) of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, and were unconstitutional, ultra vires, null, void and of no legal effect. (Kristen Macklingam)