WE in Guyana have inherited a system from the British with their peculiar history. The king was at the beginning both head of state and head of government. Since he was non-elected, as the democratic movement later got on the way his real powers of government were progressively abstracted and vested in an elected Prime Minister. It was in this way that the British came to have a Queen who is head of state but not head of government, and a Prime Minister who is head of government but not head of state. Obviously this arrangement has no necessary application to other territories. Many countries-big and small, old and new-have opted for the logically neater arrangement under which the head of state is also the head of government.
In a republic this idea takes the form of an Executive President. So that was the kind of President proposed in our new constitution by L.F.S.Burnham.
Political parties will contest at general elections on the existing P.R. system. When a party puts up a slate it will be entitled to name one of its candidates on that slate as its Presidential candidate. If the party obtains more seats in the National Assembly than any other party, its Presidential candidate will become President. When voting for a party each voter will know that he is also voting for the Presidential candidate supported by that party. The name of the Presidential candidate will therefore have been before each voter’s mind at the time of voting. In this real way therefore the President will be directly elected by the people.
The Executive President will be assisted by a Prime Minister but, unlike the existing Prime Minister, the new Prime Minister will not be head of government. He will be the principal assistant of the President and in effect the deputy head of government. The President will have a Cabinet including himself, the Prime Minister, and other ministers as the President may include. This means that there may be ministers who are not members of the Cabinet.
Thus, the President can keep the Cabinet to a manageably small working size while relieving from its sittings ministers whose primary duties lie outside.
Such ministers may of course be brought in for the discussion in Cabinet of particular matters of special interest to them.
The President will of course consult with the Cabinet, but since, as head of government, the final executive responsibility will be his, and since consequently he cannot relieve himself of that responsibility by saying that he has acted on the advice of the Cabinet, he will be entitled to act as he sees fit, whether or not his decision is acceptable to the Cabinet. By contrast since a titular President has no personal responsibility for the action of the government, he is required to act on the advice of the Cabinet.