Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo, is maintaining that the successful passage of a no confidence motion requires a “majority vote”, and he believes that the Appellate Court’s recent ruling that “majority” means “absolute majority” rather than “simple majority” is akin to rewriting the Constitution.
This perspective was proffered by Jagdeo today during a press conference for members of the media at his Church Street Office.
There, Jagdeo sought to express his disagreement with the Appellate Court’s ruling that the no confidence motion of December 21 required 34 and not 33 out of 65 votes to be considered valid. The court also said that such a motion would require an absolute majority even though the word “absolute” does not appear in Article 106 of the Constitution.
The Opposition Leader said, “I saw the court trying to put itself in the minds of the framers of our Constitution. They [must have gone] back to that period when the bill to put in place Article 106 of the Constitution was taken to the National Assembly and the period leading up to the crafting of the bill through constitutional reform…they must have checked all the records of that period to get the mindset of the framers of the Constitution.”
The former President continued, “[But] not a single shred of evidence could be found in all the discussions during that entire constitutional reform process to support the contention that the framers had any other intention besides what they put, which is the requirement of a majority vote for the successful passage of the motion, which would mean 33 votes.”
Jagdeo added, “They are rewriting the Constitution and the intent of the framers since this is a concept [absolute majority] which was is not there…This has grave implications not just for Guyana but for others in the region and beyond.”
The Opposition Leader reminded that the PPP has challenged the Appellate Court’s ruling with the CCJ and it will soon be up for a case management activity where a date will be set for its hearing. Jagdeo expects that a date will be set no later than April month-end.
