NEWS of a petition in support of a slot for former president, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, on the ruling Party’s leadership ticket has reached the ruling People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) Executive Committee.

And according to Party General Secretary, Mr Clement Rohee, the matter is being addressed.

“I have been asking questions; I have seen a copy of the petition, and I have been having discussions with the promoters of the petition to get further clarifications from them, he said. “I have gotten a clarification, and have submitted it to the Executive of our Party,” he said yesterday at the PPP’s weekly press conference at Freedom House.
Noting that the PPP Executive Committee will pronounce on the matter, Rohee said: “The response to this (issue of a petition) may come in the campaign.”
The petition at reference, which originated in Region Five (Mahaica/ Berbice), has reportedly already secured thousands of signatures, and comes on the heels of a challenge to the legality of the presidential term-limit claims that bars two-term presidents like Dr Jagdeo from holding office again.

NOT INTERESTED
Jagdeo, a member of the Party’s Executive and Central Committees – the Party’s leadership – has repeatedly affirmed his respect for the Constitution, and has made clear that he has no interest whatsoever in any so-called “third-term” Presidency.
The challenge was filed in the name of Cedric Richardson, a 56-year-old West Ruimveldt resident, by Attorney–at-Law, Emily Dodson, a People’s National Congress (PNC) sympathizer. Attorneys–at-Law Shaun Allicock and Oneidge Waldron-Allicock, also signed onto the writ.
The contentious Constitutional provision, Article 90 (2), states: “A person elected as President after 2000 is eligible for re-election only once.”
Richardson contends that the Constitutional provision “curtails” or “delimits” the electorate’s choice of a presidential candidate, such as Dr Jagdeo, by imposing a term limit.
Said he: “I believe that the illegal effect and consequence of the purported alteration is not only to curtail and restrict the democratic rights of the electorate in choosing a person as President, but to purport to amend the Articles 1 and 9 of the 1980 Constitution, which allowed the electorate to elect as president a person who had been re-elected.”
Such a change to the Constitution, which impacted on the freedoms of the electorate, Richardson says, should have been done via a referendum.
In other words, Richardson is contending that the provision of the Constitution, which imposes a term limit on the presidency, is unconstitutional, and that the procedure and process by which that provision was placed in the Constitution is unlawful.
Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Raphael Trotman, and Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr Anil Nandlall, have been named as the Respondents in the matter.
No date has yet been set for a hearing of the matter in the High Court.