New Gov’t MPs this week
President David Granger
President David Granger

…no new minister likely, but senior appointments

GOVERNMENT will, this week, announce the replacement Members of Parliament for the four dual-citizen ministers who have tendered their resignation, but no new minister is likely to be appointed, well-placed sources have told this newspaper.

According to reports reaching this newspaper, the portfolios of the four resigned ministers will be absorbed into that of current cabinet members. There will also be the announcements of some senior appointments likely to be filled by the resigned ministers.

As a consequence of the challenge to the no confidence motion, both the High Court and the Court of Appeal have ruled against persons with dual citizenship sitting as members of Parliament. Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, Minister of State, Joe Harmon, Minister of Public Service, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine and Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin have since resigned. Several MPs on the opposition also have dual

citizenship. They have indicated that they will resign also in keeping with the court ruling.
Following the resignation of the ministers, President David Granger had explained that the replacement of MPs can be done only when those MPs submit their letters of resignation to the Speaker of the National Assembly as prescribed by the Constitution of Guyana.

Article 156 (1) (A) of the Constitution states that “a member of the National Assembly shall vacate his or her seat therein – if he or she resigns it by writing under his or her own hand addressed to the Speaker or, if the Office of the Speaker is vacant or the Speaker is absent from Guyana, to the Deputy Speaker.” Another section of the Article stipulates that a MP ceases to be a member of the National Assembly if he or she declares in writing to the Speaker or to the Representative of the List from which his or her name was extracted, that he or she will not support the List from which his or her name was extracted. Once a resignation letter is submitted to the Speaker, by virtue of Article 156 (4), he will declare the seat of the Member of the National Assembly vacant.

Additionally, President Granger explained that the nomination of new MPs can be done only after the extraction of names from the National Top-Up list is approved by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). As such, the four ministers – Greenidge, Harmon, Gaskin and Dr. Roopnaraine – will remain ministers until all the processes are completed.

The President, moreover, has not approved replacements at this time. However, he noted that the resignation of the ministers is in keeping with the Constitution of Guyana as well as the March 22, 2019 ruling of the Court of Appeal relative to the validity of the no-confidence motion passed on December 21, 2018. On Tuesday, hours after the announcement was made, Cabinet said for the ensuing period, as is the usual practice, the ministerial portfolios, when they become vacant, would be held by sitting members of Cabinet who previously acted when those ministers were on leave or out of the jurisdiction.

The issue of MPs with dual citizenship status became a subject of discussion and legal action last December after Charrandass Persaud, a then Government MP, used his seat in the National Assembly to vote in favour of the opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion, that was intended to topple the government. At the time, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Barton Scotland, had declared the motion passed by a majority of 33.

Subsequently, a farmer from New Amsterdam, Compton Reid, challenged the validity of the vote on the grounds that Persaud breached the Constitution when he sat in the house as a dual citizen. Reid, through his attorneys, Senior Counsel Rex McKay and Neil Boston, argued that Persaud was not eligible for membership of the National Assembly and ought not to have been in the House on the night of December 21, 2018. While the courts have upheld the vote cast by Persaud, who has since been recalled from the National Assembly, they have indicated that it is unconstitutional to be a MP and hold dual citizenship at the same time.

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