Govt. moves to fight no-confidence motion in court

Jan 04, 2019 News

Attorney General Basil Williams said that the government has already moved to the High Court to file their cases in relation to the no-confidence motion.
He told this to members of the media shortly after Speaker of the House, Dr. Barton Scotland, declined to reverse the motion of No-Confidence against the government, and advised that the matter be taken to the Court for a final solution.
Williams said that the government is willing to take the matter as far as the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)’s judicial institution.
When asked how soon the government would be moving to the court, Williams said, “I’m talking to the people who are filing right now.”
He said that the details of the case should be completed shortly and would be publicly available today.
“We’ve got to file several actions. The first one is the Charrandass’ disqualification,” referring to the contention raised by the government that Charrandass Persaud is not qualified to ser

Attorney General, Basil Williams

ve in the National Assembly by virtue of two separate constitutional provisions.
The first is that he should not retain his MP status if he supports a list other than the one on which he is placed. In this case, Persaud supported the motion of No-Confidence placed by the People’s Progressive Party, instead of the government. The second ground for disqualification is that Persaud, by virtue of his Canadian citizenship, has sworn his allegiance to that country, thereby, ridding himself of the eligibility to serve in the Parliament of Guyana.

The second action, he said, is that the constitution was breached by the carrying of a motion, which according to the government, does not have the sufficient number of votes to be considered an absolute majority. The government’s argument is that the vote of no-confidence requires 34 votes, instead of 33.
The Attorney General, commenting on the limited amount of time remaining for the election deadline, said that the status quo would have to be retained until the court sorts out the matter, even if that means overstepping the 90-day deadline, mandated by the Constitution. The status quo he referred to is that of the APNU+AFC Coalition as the Government of Guyana.
Asked whether he considers the Speaker’s comments commendable, he said, “I think it was pretty good. I thought that he [figured], rather [than have] a decision made in Parliament, you might as well go to the right forum and settle the issue.
“He thought that the issues were substantive issues that should be resolved by the courts, and we don’t have a problem with that.”

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