Book reviews: The President and the Constitution

Feb 09, 2020 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

(A review of four books by David Granger: Credible elections: The political situation in Guyana; The way forward: Consensualism vs. unilateralism; The political situation in Guyana: The Legislative, Executive and Judiciary and Elections; and, The political environment and economic development; Constitutional compliance and commercial progress)
Guyana occupies a unique constitutional corner in the Anglo-phone Caribbean. It took a tortuous path away from the 19th century Dutch Court of Policy. Its passage through to the suspension of the Constitution in 1953 in the first elections after the introduction of universal adult franchise; introduction of the ‘proportional representation’ electoral system; establishment of its Court of Appeal and, eventually, the adoption of the Independence and Republican constitutions, signified changes which, often, were the results of political collisions.
Political controversy, notwithstanding, constitutional developments added to the country’s complex electoral history. The powers of the executive presidency enshrined in the 1980 Republican Constitution, for example, differ from those of Caribbean prime ministers, markedly.
David Granger’s four-book collection about the political situation in his country, following the passage of no-confidence motion in the National Assembly in December 2018, falls within this tradition. The collection highlights the interplay of the roles of Executive, the Legislature (that is, the National Assembly), the Judiciary and the Elections Commission and the electoral system in its constitutional evolution.
The collection combines political perspicacity with critical perspectives into controversial constitutional questions, the solutions to which are of enduring significance to constitutional development.
The four books have their genesis in political developments in the National Assembly in December 2018. The political Opposition, gleeful over its successes in the local government elections one month earlier, moved to unseat the Government by tabling a no-confidence motion.
The Opposition succeeded on the 21st December 2018 when the motion was debated and passed by a simple majority of one with the support of a single backbencher on the Government’s side which, since the previous elections in 2015, enjoyed meagre majority of one-seat in the National Assembly. It was the first time that a Government had been unseated by a no-confidence motion in Guyana.
The motion’s passage triggered a suite of legal challenges which went all the way to the country’s highest court – the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). This process took almost six months to conclude. The legal and political arguments during and after this period revolved, primarily, around the legality and constitutionality of the Government’s actions.
The collection constitutes the President’s responses to critics and detractors who had accused him of squatting in office and leading an illegal government. He has defended his Government constitutionality, employing a blend of legal and political arguments. The collection is a reminder that constitutional issues cannot be considered in isolation from their political context.
The legal challenges to the no-confidence motion resulted in elections not being held within the three-month timeframe contemplated by the Constitution, a problem which was exacerbated by the facts of the readiness of the Elections Commission and the expiration of the existing Official List of Elections.

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Credible elections: The political situation in Guyana, the first book, debates the issue of whether the President should declare a date for elections when he has received no indication that the country’s electoral authority – the Elections Commission –would be in a state of readiness to hold such elections, and in light of the then ongoing legal challenges to the no-confidence motion.
The book provides evidence of engagements, including correspondence, between the Executive and the Elections Commission on the one hand, and the Leader of the Opposition, on the other. The President faced a ‘chicken-and-egg’ dilemma which he answers, pointedly, using legal decisions and the Constitution to support his stance.

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The way forward: Consensualism vs. unilateralism, the second book, argues a case for political consensus in appointing a Chairperson of the Elections Commission, following the annulment of the appointment of the previous Chairman, by the Caribbean Court of Justice.
The President makes a case for an interpretation of the ruling which assigns him a role in ‘hammering out’ a candidate for the appointment that is consensual – acceptable to both the governing coalition and the parliamentary Opposition while remaining consistent with the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

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The political situation in Guyana: The Legislative, Executive and Judiciary and Elections, the third book, constitutes the text of an address the President made to the Diplomatic Corps and civil society in Georgetown after the ruling and the issuance of the Consequential Orders by the Caribbean Court of Justice.
The book details the steps which his administration took to comply with the courts’ rulings and to ensure credible elections in the shortest possible time.
This book is supplemented by another – Consequential Orders of the Caribbean Court of Justice– which contains the unofficial text of the CCJ’s orders but which is not a subject of this review.

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The political environment and economic development; Constitutional compliance and commercial progress, the fourth book in the collection, makes a convincing case for the constitutionality of President Granger’s government and the efficacy of its actions since the passage of the no-confidence motion. It was aimed at assuaging apprehensions of commercial instability caused by the political situation.
The President, using the CCJ’s judgment in the very case in which it affirmed the validity of the no-confidence motion, argues for his Government’s continuity in office. He emphasizes that his Government complied with the CCJ’s final ruling in every detail, justifies his stance of not declaring a date for elections, whimsically and in the absence of advice by the Elections Commission, and gives assurances of his Government’s commitment to respect the Constitutional role of the Elections Commission in order to ensure credible elections.

President Granger’s four-book collection is essential reading for everyone interested in the eventful year – 2019 – in this Caribbean Republic. The books, despite references to legal sources, are written in clear language which can be digested as easily and equally by the legal luminary in his or her chambers as they can by the man or woman in the street. It is an intellectually stimulating collection.
Students of Caribbean constitutional law, politics and history will find the arguments erudite, enlivening and enriching. They should not ignore the most vital lesson of the Guyanese electoral experience, that discourses on constitutional development cannot be divorced from their political contexts.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s)and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)