The Caribbean Court of Justice has ruled that the Government of Guyana must call new elections. This is after the Guyanese parliament passed a no confidence motion against the David Granger administration in December of last year. That's when Charandas Persaud, a member of the Government side, joined the 32 Opposition members in supporting a no confidence motion, resulting in 33 members voting in favour of the motion and 32 voting against.
That should have triggered the resignation of the President and the Cabinet, and new elections in three months, but Granger's government did not resign; it resisted - saying that 33 was not a clear majority of 35 - and even retained Belizean Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay to make arguments before the CCJ in May. But today, the highest court in the Caribbean declared that the no confidence motion is valid.
In the coming days, the Court will hear further arguments on what should happen next now that the no confidence motion has been ruled valid.
In an address to the nation, Granger said the vote would be held in late November to give the country's independent election body time to create a new registry of voters, basically re-registration.
Email
Print