GOVERNMENT is prepared to honour the ruling made by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the case regarding the validity of the no-confidence motion, which was passed in the National Assembly in December, 2018.

Director General of the Ministry of the Presidency, Joseph Harmon, said the CCJ is the final court and whatever decision it arrives at, that will be the decision which the government will accept.

“Whatever decision the court arrives at, it is a decision which we, as a government, has committed to accepting… we have no trepidation or fear about the decision itself,” said Harmon during a post-cabinet press briefing on Friday. He reiterated that government is prepared for whatever the court will decide next Tuesday.

In March, the Court of Appeal, by a 2-1 margin, ruled that the no-confidence motion, which was filed in the name of the Opposition Leader last December, was not validly passed in the National Assembly, thereby overturning the High Court’s decision of Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire, which was made on January 31, 2019.

The motion secured 33 votes after then government parliamentarian, Charrandass Persaud, had voted for the opposition-sponsored motion.

It was reported that President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Justice Adrian Saunders, adopted government’s position that an absolute majority was needed to pass the no-confidence motion.

Justice Saunders said it is clear that an absolute majority was the requirement. “No one doubts that an absolute majority was required in this case,” Justice Saunders said.
In the three appeals, the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, along with recalled Member of Parliament, Charrandass Persaud, and political activist, Christopher Ram, were trying to validate the passage of the motion in an attempt to defeat the government.

The three cases were: Christopher Ram v The Attorney General, the Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Harmon and the Guyana Elections Commission; Bharrat Jagdeo v The Attorney General, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Joseph Harmon and the Guyana Elections Commission; and Charrandass Persaud v Compton Reid, the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Attorney General, Bharrat Jagdeo, Joseph Harmon and the Guyana Elections Commission. The coalition government, through the attorney general, had filed a cross appeal.