THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has filed Notice of Application at the High Court to block the ongoing house-to-house registration exercise.

In the court documents seen by this newspaper, attorney Christopher Ram, who is listed as the applicant, has brought the action against the Guyana Elections Commission, Chief Elections Officer, Commissioner of National Registration and the Attorney General.
Ram is applying to the High Court for: a declaration that the house-to-house registration exercise currently being conducted by the Guyana Elections Commission, Chief Election Officer, and/or Commissioner of National Registration is in violation of Article 106 (6) and 106 (7) of the Constitution of Guyana; a declaration that the said action is in violation of the letter and spirit of the Judgment and Consequential Orders of the Caribbean Court of Justice in the consolidated Appeals; and that it is illegal, unlawful, ultra vires, unconstitutional, null, void and of no effect.

Given the aforementioned stance, Ram is hereby seeking: a Conservatory Order prohibiting GECOM from conducting or continuing to conduct the current House-to-House Registration process; an Order compelling the listed parties, to immediately take all steps and actions necessary and requisite to hold General and Regional Elections on or before the 18th day of September 2019, in compliance with Article 106 (6) and 106 (7) of the Constitution of Guyana and the decisions of the Caribbean Court of Justice in the consolidated appeals.
Detailing the grounds for the application, Ram contends that since the No-Confidence Motion on December 21, 2018, was successfully passed, as ruled by the Caribbean Court of Justice, and in accordance with the Constitution of Guyana, the Government should not be functioning as per norm.

Referencing articles from the Constitution, Ram outlined in his application that Article 107(6) states: “The Cabinet including the President shall resign if the Government is defeated by a vote of majority of all the elected members of the National Assembly.”
Article 106(7): “Notwithstanding its defeat, the Government shall remain in office and shall hold an election within three months, or such longer period as the National Assembly shall by resolution supported by not less than two-thirds of the votes of all the elected members of the National Assembly determine, and shall resign after the President takes the oath of office following the election.”

He said that upon the passage of the aforesaid No-Confidence Motion, the Cabinet, including the President refused and/or neglected subsequent thereto and to date have not done so; neither has the President issued a Proclamation dissolving the National Assembly and fixed a date for General and Regional Elections, within the three-month period, as provided and contemplated for in articles quoted above.

This, Ram contends, is in willful and flagrant violation of the articles, and in deliberate defiance of the Caribbean Court of Justice decisions and Orders.
It is the view of Ram and the PPP, that if the house-to-house exercise is permitted to continue, it will constitute a flagrant violation, not only of the Constitution but on the rule of law and will be an assault on constitutional democracy;
He is also of the view that in order to complete house-to-house Registration within an impossible time frame, it will result in thousands of Guyanese being unlawfully deregistered and will omit to register thousands of qualified registrants thereby resulting in their loss in their right to vote at the next elections.

List needed to be sanitised
However, the view of the government is quite the opposite. In fact, the government believes that the list needs to be sanitised in order to have credible elections.
Time and time again, the government would have insisted that no registration will result in the disenfranchisement of the youths who would have turned 18 after the last election, and those who would have had any name change.
Additionally, all the persons who would have died between the last elections, to now, will still be on the list. It is the view of the government that this will allow for room for possible rigging of the elections.

According to recent reports, President David Granger said he will proclaim a date for elections when GECOM advises him that it is in a state of readiness for the conduct of credible, fair and free elections. “At this stage, only the elections commission has the authority to run elections, not the Executive, not the National Assembly, not the President; and I am going to abide by whatever decisions the elections commission takes with regard to the preparation of the list. I will abide by the advice of the elections commission on when to call elections.

Right now it is only the elections commission that could determine the time and the form of elections, and I am prepared to abide by their decisions,” President Granger had said. GECOM however, through its attorney Stanley Marcus, has long stated that it could facilitate credible elections only after December 25, 2019, when the process of house-to-house registration is completed. It has said that it cannot conduct elections on an expired List of Electors and house-to-house registration has become necessary to produce a new and credible list. Now that this action is filed, the court will decide on the way forward as it relates to elections in Guyana.