Dear editor,
THE Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID) welcomes the judgement of the Guyana Court of Appeal, which, yesterday March 23, 2019, nullified the December 21, 2018 no confidence vote (NCV) brought in Guyana’s National Assembly by opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo. This judgment overturned the January 31, 2019 ruling of Chief Justice Roxanne George upheld the no confidence vote.  This judgement vindicates CGID, which on the instance of the vote resolutely and vehemently declared it to be unconstitutional. The ruling of the Court of Appeal also vindicates Guyana’s Attorney General, Basil Williams, SC, M.P., and his team, who were unjustly criticized in sections of the society.

The genesis of this historic case is in the December 21, 2018 vote on a no confidence motion introduced in the National Assembly by former president and opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo. The vote was 33 to 32 against the APNU+AFC coalition government. Then government member of Parliament, Charrandas Persaud, allegedly accepted a multi-million US dollar bribe from the PPP and voted with the opposition against his own government.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, on January 3, 2019 ruled that the motion was validly passed, and the Chief Justice validated the vote.  However the Court of Appeal by majority decision ruled that the Chief Justice erred as the motion required 34 votes to meet the constitutional entrenchment of an absolutely majority. Consequently, the motion was not validly passed and was unconstitutional.  The court comprised Chancellor of the Judiciary Hon. Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Justice Dawn Gegroy and Justice Rishi Persaud. Justice Persaud dissented.

Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo immediately attacked Chancellor of the Judiciary, Hon. Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justice Dawn Gregory, who comprised the majority of the court, as political elements.  CGID strongly condemns Mr. Jagdeo’s contempt for the court and repugnant incivility. Such lawlessness and disrespect of our court have no place in our society. The rule of law is supreme. It is an aberration to impugn motives to judicial officers when they perform their constitutional duties.

Mr. Jagdeo has continuously disgraced the nation as well as the high constitutional offices of opposition leader and Member of Parliament. He used the NCV to incite racial division and violence. He spewed vile, racist propaganda daily and called for violence against the President and Prime Minister of Guyana in violation of the seditions act.  Mr. Jagdeo’s fermentation of racial insecurities and tensions was reminiscent of the dark period of the 1964 race wars in Guyana. Our nation must never go there again.

Most Guyanese believe that Bharrat Jagdeo is a bigot and unrepentant racist who is determined to destroy the fabric of Guyana if he does not regain power. As president of Guyana from 1999 to 2011, Bharrat Jagdeo presided over a government which acted like a criminal cartel. His government became ensconced with criminals, drug barons, phantom death squads and murder- for-hire gangs, which carried out a pogrom. Together they killed over 400 mostly Afro-Guyanese young men, according to the United Nations 2009 McDougall report.

The World Bank estimated that over US $5 billion was siphoned off from the Guyana treasury during Jagdeo’s ethnocratic dictatorship. Currently, Bharrat Jagdeo is being investigated by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) of the Guyana Police Force for public corruption. He is also under investigation by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission for allegedly ordering crimes against humanity. Mr. Jagdeo is the most odious and disgraced politician in the Caribbean. He has been banned from ever again being President of Guyana by the Caribbean Court of Justice.

In consideration of all of the above, CGID therefore calls for Mr. Jagdeo to resign as opposition leader. We also wrote the leader of Government business in the National Assembly, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, as well as government Chief Whip, Amna Ally, calling for a motion to be introduced in Parliament to censure Mr. Jagdeo for inciting violence against the Head of State and Prime Minister of Guyana.

The miasma of Mr. Jagdeo’s odious politics, racism and corruption dangles over the PPP like the Sword of Damocles that is inflicting irreparable harm to race relations and national cohesion in Guyana. Mr. Jagdeo is the epitome of PPP leadership which the Guyanese electorate continues to despise.
Rickford Burke,
President
Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID)