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Govt. awaiting written judgment to challenge presidential term limit ruling
Government is awaiting a written judgment from the Court of Appeal in order to proceed further
Former president, Bharrat Jagdeo
with the presidential third term limit case.
In February of this year, the Court of Appeal ruled that presidential term limits are unconstitutional. The government then said that it would be moving to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to challenge the ruling.
“That is basically where we are, a notice of appeal has been filed and the specific terms will have to await the written judgment by the court,” Minister Harmon explained during a post-Cabinet press briefing at the Ministry of the Presidency yesterday.
During the February ruling, Justice B.S. Roy and former Chancellor of the Judiciary, Carl Singh dismissed the appeal by Attorney General Basil Williams, SC and former Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman, and upheld the ruling of the former Chief Justice, Ian Chang. The then Chief Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards gave a dissenting judgement, and ruled in favour of allowing an appeal.
In 2015, the then Chief Justice, Ian Chang (ag) ruled that the constitutional amendment, Act No. 17 of 2001, which limits the number of times a person could be elected as President was unconstitutional. He said that such decisions require a referendum.
In 2014, Cedric Richardson, a Guyanese citizen, filed a constitutional challenge regarding the two-term limit for the country’s presidency. The challenge was filed by Attorneys-at-Law Emily Dodson and Shawn Allicock, on behalf of Richardson.
In 2000, the National Assembly passed amendments to the Act governing eligibility to seek the Presidency of Guyana. Those amendments made it ineligible for someone who would have been elected to serve twice as President to seek a third term.
It is widely expected that the court action was to pave the way for former president Bharrat Jagdeo to make another run for office when elections are scheduled to be held in 2020.
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