A case in which PPP member Desmond Morian is seeking to bar Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix and Minister within the Ministry of Social Protection, Keith Scott, from sitting in the National Assembly as Technocrat Ministers, is set for ruling on Wednesday, January 22, 2019 at the Court of Appeal in Kingston.
The date was announced this morning by Justice of Appeal Dawn Gregory, who along with Justice of Appeal Rishi Persaud and additional judge of the High Court Franklyn Holder is hearing the matter. Following, the 2015 General and Regional Elections, the PPP had opposed to Ministers Scott and Felix sitting as Technocrats in the National Assembly.
A High Court action was brought in this regard by Morian who argued that among other things, Articles 103 (3) and 105 of the Constitution of Guyana and Laws pronouncing on the eligibility of the appointment of Technocratic Ministers do not confer Technocratic status on these persons already sworn in by President David Granger as Ministers.
In February, 2016, Chief Justice Ian Chang, now deceased, ruled that these two ministers cannot continue to sit in the National Assembly as non-elected members as they were both elected as part of the Coalition’s list of National candidates. Justice Chang also ruled that despite them being appointed by President David Granger to be Executive members of government, such an appointment does not entitle them to sit as Technocrat Ministers.
The government, on the other hand, had always insisted that the Ministers were properly appointed. In its appeal against the ruling, the government argued that Justice Chang’s decision was bad in law and a breach of the rules of natural justice.
In fact, government through the Attorney General argued that Justice Chang fell into grave error of law and misdirected himself in law when he found that persons who are on the successful list of candidates are elected and therefore cannot qualify under Article 105 of the Constitution of Guyana to be ‘non-elected’ members of parliament and who have not been chosen or selected from the list of candidates to be Members of Parliament are excluded from being selected by the President as persons who are qualified to be elected as members of the National Assembly.”
Among other things, Government had also argued that at the time of delivering the ruling, Chief Justice Chang was functus officio, which refers to an officer or agency whose mandate has expired, due to either the arrival of an expiry date or an agency having accomplished the purpose for which it was created.
