ATTORNEY General, Anil Nandlall, SC has petitioned the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Guyana’s court of final resort, to overturn the Court of Appeal’s decision to nullify Vikash Ramkissoon and Sarah Browne’s appointment as Parliamentary Secretaries.

In the application filed with the Trinidad-based court, he argued that the appellate court erred in ousting them from the National Assembly for being unlawful members, because their names, while on their party’s list, were not among the 33 names extracted to take up seats in the National Assembly.

Subsequent to the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) being allocated the majority of seats (33) in the National Assembly, based on the number of votes cast in the party’s favour at the March 2020 General and Regional Elections, Browne and Ramkissoon were not extracted from the party’s list of candidates to become members of the National Assembly.

However, they were appointed members of the Twelfth Parliament of Guyana on September 15, 2020, under Article 186 of the Constitution of Guyana, which provides that Parliamentary Secretaries may be appointed from among persons who are elected members of the National Assembly or are qualified to be elected as such members.

Parliamentary Secretaries are appointed by the President to assist specific subject ministries and may answer questions and debate issues in the Assembly; however, they do not have voting privileges.
Opposition Chief Whip, Christopher Jones, had challenged Browne and Ramkissoon’s appointment, contending they cannot be appointed as non-elected Members of Parliament (MPs), since they were named on the PPP/C’s list of candidates for the March 2, 2020 elections.

In its July 25, 2023 decision, the Court of Appeal determined that Browne and Ramkissoon were elected members of the National Assembly under Article 186 of the Constitution because they were on the PPP/C’s list of candidates, even if not extracted from it, and were thus ineligible to be non-voting members due to their appointments as Parliamentary Secretaries.
The Court of Appeal based its decision on the case of Desmond Morian v. Attorney General.

In Desmond Morian v. Attorney General, the now-deceased Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang held that individuals who were on a political party’s list of candidates but not extracted were considered elected members of the National Assembly. Justice Chang had determined that then President David Granger violated the Constitution by appointing Winston Felix and Keith Scott as technocratic ministers, although their names were on the APNU list of candidates for the 2015 General and Regional Elections.

Technocrat Ministers, like Parliamentary Secretaries, are not eligible to vote. Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George, SC had cited that case as precedent to declare herself bound when she adjudicated and ruled Browne and Ramkissoon’s appointments were unconstitutional. The Court of Appeal later supported her decision, citing the Morian case.

Nandlall is contending before the CCJ that the Court of Appeal erred in determining that their appointments as Parliamentary Secretaries were illegal and that they were ineligible to be elected. He is also contending that the court’s decision that a person on a successful list of candidates for a General Election is an elected member of the National Assembly even if they were not selected from the list to take up a seat in the Assembly was incorrect.

He is asking that the CCJ reverse and/or set aside the local appellate court’s ruling, award costs in the CCJ and courts below, and grant any additional remedies that the court thinks appropriate.
The CCJ is likely to hear the appeal in the coming months. Browne and Ramkissoon were appointed Parliamentary Secretaries of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, respectively by President Dr Irfaan Ali.