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Govt. rejects notion of Jagdeo’s return to presidency
Government has dispelled speculations that there may be another stint at the Presidency for former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, yesterday asserted that it is not a feature that is embraced by the current Donald Ramotar administration. 
Dr. Luncheon was at the time responding to queries about whether former President Jagdeo can be re-elected.
“I think it will be fair to say that the intent behind a term limited presidency embraced by this administration, does not allow us opportunities to exploit loopholes…It is definitely not a feature for us, maybe some other jurisdiction or some other government, but the intent of term limited presidency that we agreed to, we will continue to embrace,” Dr. Luncheon told the media.
Senior Counsel and Former Speaker of the National Assembly, Ralph Ramkarrran, in his weekly column, had noted that there might be a loophole in Constitution, giving former Presidents another term to rule, having already served two consecutive terms.
Ramkarran was a long standing member of the governing People’s Progressive Party (PPP), up until he resigned after a fall out with the party.
Ramkarran had pointed out that the provision in the Constitution that prescribes term limits for presidents does not use the word “consecutively” and this has given rise to speculation that it allows a President to serve only one term or two consecutive terms and return after a lapse of one or more terms and seek re-election.
He said that this speculation turns on the meaning of the word “re-election” in the provision.
Ramkarran explained that since a re-election can only come immediately after an election, therefore re-election means re-election to a second consecutive term.”
In his interpretation of the provision said, “A re-election cannot come after a lapse of one or more terms because that would be an election…Since a President can only be re-elected only once, it means that he can only serve two consecutive terms at one time.”
As such he concluded that, “the provision does not preclude a President being elected again after a lapse of one or more terms as this would be an election and not a re-election.”
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) at its most recent press engagement had refuted
Ramkarran’s interpretation of the constitutional provision
The Leader of the 10-party coalition, Brigadier (rtd), David Granger, told media operatives, “The APNU takes an English Language constitution; that is the word ‘re’ means ‘again’ and if a person cannot be re-elected then that means he cannot be re-elected AGAIN. Our position is that Mr. Jagdeo is not eligible to be re-elected. He is not eligible to be elected ‘AGAIN’. We do not support any interpretation which allows Mr Bharrat Jagdeo to be elected ‘AGAIN’ as President of Guyana…Any president,” the APNU said.
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