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President’s immunities to lawsuits should be removed forthwith-WPA Executive Member
…In this way, he is likely to be less cavalier in the exercise of power
By Kiana A. Wilburg
The power of the Executive has been a sore point in most countries. It is argued that this is the case because
WPA Executive Member, Dr. David Hinds
that branch of government which runs the day to day affairs of the country is in most cases, dominated by a single individual. With so much scope, Dr. David Hinds opines that there exists much room for the abuse of Executive power.
Dr. Hinds said that in 1980, Guyana transitioned away from a ceremonial presidency to an executive presidency and this resulted in the fusion of the powers of the old Head of State (the President) and the old Prime Ministership in the same office and by extension the same person.
“So we now have a very powerful Chief Executive. All executive power is vested in the President. He is in charge of the Presidency and the Cabinet, which are separate organs in the Executive. And on top of that, the President is part of the Parliament. He has certain powers over another branch of government that is not reciprocated.”
He said, too, that there are very weak checks on the presidency by the legislature. In this regard, he noted that the legislature can indicate a loss of confidence in the President, but he can dismiss the legislature before it acts. Dr. Hinds said that this is exactly what former President Donald Ramotar did in 2014 when he was faced with a No- Confidence Motion brought by the Alliance For Change (AFC).
But more than that, Dr. Hinds said that the Constitution gives the President immunity from civil and criminal prosecution for acts committed while in office. The WPA Executive Member said that this means that the President is not checked by the judiciary—the courts. He believes that this is a further erosion of the doctrine of Separation of Powers. The political activist said that the traditional checks and balances which make the branches co-equals are in effect absent, given this state of affairs.
He said, “What we have in Guyana is at best, Executive Supremacy which is the basis for Executive Tyranny. For me, then, the most urgent reform has to be the removal of the immunities from prosecution. You cannot talk about democracy and have a Chief Executive with such immunities. That is more like a monarchy. We have seen the abuse of the powers of the Presidency. Those immunities should be removed forthwith.”
Dr. Hinds added, “If the president knows that he is not protected by such immunities, he is likely to be less cavalier in the exercise of power.”
Ultimately, the WPA Executive Member would like to see stricter separation of powers which removes the almost absolute domination of other branches by the President. He emphasized that there should be Checks and Balances, but these should be reciprocal among the branches.
In relation to Executive Power, Dr. Hinds said that he would opt for a more democratic distribution of powers between the President and the Prime Minister. He said that there should be a split Executive. The WPA Executive Member said that the President should not be vested will all executive powers.
“I believe that Power Sharing in the Executive is the best system. In that regard, I think the President and Prime Minister should not be from the same party. That would ensure that Executive Power is not concentrated in the hands of one party or coalition of parties or one ethnic group.”
Members of the AFC have also spoken on the need to address the powers allotted to the Executive. During the 2015 election campaign trail, AFC Executive Member, Nigel Hughes, had outlined that one of the important things the Constitution speaks to is the distribution of power and how it should be exercised.
Hughes had said, “What you have is the President being a part of the parliament and then when you go to Cabinet, you have him there, where he has supreme executive power. So in effect, he has power of all three organs of the state.”
But Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo said that amending the powers of the Executive is not an issue that stands alone.
He said that the Coalition government would have to see how is it that the Constitution could be reworked and amended or reformed to bring about greater comity between the powers of the Executive and the Legislature and particularly how one could be able to diffuse some of the powers of the Executive to bring some of those powers within the purview of the Prime Minister.
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