Govt has no legal limb, just buying time

Jan 01, 2019 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Government has no legal limb on which to stand on in its challenge to the constitutionality of the no-confidence motion.
If therefore the government proceeds to challenge the no-confidence motion in court, all it will be doing is buying itself some time.
The government’s support base has been galvanized since the no-confidence motion was passed on December 21, 2018. Court action will exhaust the energies which will be needed for elections.
The government’s support base which is now animated will not be as mobilized if prolonged court action results.
The government therefore has to make a decision. Is it in its best interests to try to frustrate the holding of elections, or should it now go ahead and call the elections given the state of mobilization of its supporters?
The coalition government has to also consider the chances of success of any court challenge?
The government does not have a legal limb on which to successfully challenge the no-confidence motion.
It seems to be at great pains to convince the public, including its supporters, that a majority of the elected members of the National Assembly is 34, instead of 33. The government will not get very far with the precedents on which it is relying; these are as porous as a strainer.
Yesterday this column countered a new twist to the majority issue. The government is now contending that to pass a Bill or an ordinary motion in the National Assembly requires a simple majority – a majority of the total votes cast.
However, it argues that to pass a no-confidence motion requires an absolute majority – the majority of the votes of all the elected members of the Assembly.
As was pointed out in yesterday’s column, this argument fails to consider that when all the elected members of the National Assembly vote, a simple majority becomes the same as an absolute majority.
The simple majority when every elected members votes has always been 33 and this therefore is an absolute majority when every elected member votes.
The government therefore cannot claim that the simple majority needed to pass Bills and motions was valid and at the same time deny that the absolute majority requires a different number of votes.
The government’s supporters are therefore attempting to come up with new legal grounds. The latest ground being touted is that it was illegal for Charrandass Persaud to go against the wishes of the list which he represents.
This argument is rubbish. There is nothing to prevent a member on the government side from not voting along party lines. A government parliamentarian is not obligated to vote in accordance with the wishes of his government or party.
There are consequences such as being recalled which can result but there is no law which dictates that a member on the government side cannot vote contrary to the rest of his or her colleagues.
On July 30, 2018, AFC parliamentarians Khemraj Ramjattan and Dominic Gaskin abstained from supporting a motion moved by George Norton on behalf of the Committee of Appointments. It was the first time that the opposition was able to defeat a government motion after three years of the coalition government.
Twenty six other APNU+AFC parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, were reported to have voted in support of the motion. The Minister of Finance was not present in the House at the time the motion was voted on even though he had been present earlier during the debate on the motion.
The idea therefore that a parliamentarian on the government side has to vote along party lines is not supported by law or by existing practice.
There is nothing which prevents a parliamentarian from either abstaining or voting in accordance with his conscience.
The government therefore has no legal limb on which to challenge the no-confidence motion. It is merely trying to buy some time in the hope that it will be ready for elections.
But is that a safe strategy? Or is it like the “bring it on” challenge, yet another failed gambit by the coalition government?

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