Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06GEORGETOWN974
2006-09-22 20:37:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Georgetown
Cable title:  

WHO NEEDS A GOVERNMENT? GUYANA NOT BOTHERED BY

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KDEM OAS GY 
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FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
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RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 1015
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RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM J2 MIAMI FL
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0112
C O N F I D E N T I A L GEORGETOWN 000974 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM OAS GY
SUBJECT: WHO NEEDS A GOVERNMENT? GUYANA NOT BOTHERED BY
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES


Classified By: POLITICAL OFFICER JOHN E ZAK FOR REASON 1.4(D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L GEORGETOWN 000974

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/21/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM OAS GY
SUBJECT: WHO NEEDS A GOVERNMENT? GUYANA NOT BOTHERED BY
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES


Classified By: POLITICAL OFFICER JOHN E ZAK FOR REASON 1.4(D)


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The PNCR and AFC have both filed lawsuits
challenging the constitutionality of the delay in convening
Parliament and of the swearing-in of government ministers
before they were formally elected to Parliament. Also, in an
unprecedented move President Jagdeo left the country for two
weeks without swearing in an Acting President. Although the
two leading opposition parties have independently brought
court actions questioning whether a legal government
currently exists in Guyana, neither is yet making it a big
political issue. Jagdeo, along with senior government and
party leaders, seems unconcerned by the constitutional
issues, raising questions about his campaign commitment to
pursue governmental reform after the election. End Summary.

-------------- --------------
LAWSUITS CHALLENGE DELAY IN CALLING NEW PARLIAMENT
-------------- --------------


2. (U) People's National Congress Reform (PNCR) Leader Robert
Corbin filed a court action September 20 charging that
President Jagdeo violated the Constitution when he proclaimed
on September 11 that the new Parliament would commence
September 28. The PNCR's suit seeks a declaration that the
proclamation violates Article 69(1) of the Constitution which
requires that Parliament be held no more than four months
after the last Parliament was dissolved. The PNCR suit
argues that as a result of the constitutional violation, no
session of Parliament can be lawfully called.


3. (U) The Alliance for Change (AFC) filed a similar, but
less confrontational lawsuit last week. The AFC action asks
the High Court to determine whether the President could
lawfully convoke Parliament after the constitutional deadline
had passed and asks the court to determine the way forward
given the apparent constitutional issues. AFC leaders
explained that their suit is meant to avoid court challenges
to legislation passed by the new Parliament that could be
based on grounds that the Parliament had not been properly
constituted.


4. (U) Both legal actions are based on a constitutional
provision mandating that Parliament must sit within four
months of the dissolution of the previous Parliament. As
Parliament was dissolved on May 2, the new session should
have commenced by September 2.

-------------- --------------
APPOINTMENT OF GOVERNMENT MINISTERS ALSO CHALLENGED
-------------- --------------


5. (U) In a separate issue, the PNCR lawsuit also seeks a
declaration that the appointment of government ministers,
before they were elected Members of Parliament (MP),is
unconstitutional. The AFC lawsuit raises similar questions.
Under Article 103 of the Constitution, except for four
non-voting technocrats, Ministers of Government can only be
appointed from duly elected MPs. The election of MPs
involves the extraction of names from the party list of
candidates and a corresponding declaration by the Chief
Elections Officer. In this case, the new Ministers of
Government were appointed on September 8 and they took the
oath of office the next day, while the declaration of the
elected PPP/C MPs was not done until September 13. Some
irony is raised by the fact that almost four weeks after the
elections, the PNCR still has not extracted its MPs from the
PNC/R-1G list of candidates. PNCR Leader Corbin has
repeatedly said his party is in no hurry.

--------------
WHO,S PRESIDENT?
--------------


6. (C) The question of who has executive authority during
Jagdeo,s September 12-25 sojourn to Singapore and New York
is also an issue on the cocktail circuit, but has not yet
attracted legal or political attention. Normally when he
travels out of country, the President swears in the Prime
Minister as Acting President, although any Minister can be
tapped for this duty. Currently, there is no Prime Minister
until Parliament meets and no Minister was sworn in as Acting
President when Jadgeo departed September 12. New Minister of
Foreign Trade Henry Jeffrey recently volunteered to DCM that
Roger Luncheon verbally tasked him with acting as Foreign

Minister while Insanally is at the UNGA. When Jeffrey,s
secretary asked the Office of the President for the normal

SIPDIS
instrument empowering one Minister to act for another, the
response came back that there could be no formal
authorization because there is no one with executive
authority to sign it.

-------------- --
JAGDEO/PPP UNCONCERNED BY CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS
-------------- --


7. (C) Although the appointment of the Ministers of
Government prior to their formal election to Parliament and
the proclamation summoning Parliament a month after the
deadline apparently violate Guyana's Constitution, President
Jagdeo and the PPP/C appear impervious to the dilemma. In
response to earlier questions regarding the impending
constitutional deadline for commencing Parliament, Jagdeo
casually stated that "we will take our time and do it well...
we are in no rush." In private meetings with the Ambassador,
both the Attorney General and Chief Justice of the High Court
were quick to dismiss the notion that both Parliament and the
newly named Ministers of government were unconstitutional.
"We have to have a Parliament", the Attorney General
reasoned, "I am sure the court will work it out."

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


8. (C) Just as interesting as the constitutional issues is
the PNCR's lack of alacrity in bringing the issue to court.
More than three weeks after the election results were
announced, the PNCR has yet to extract the names of its 22
MPs from its party list. Informed sources say the PNCR is
facing difficulties since it put most of its top guns on the
national list, but ended up winning more regional and fewer
national seats than expected. The PNCR court challenge
appears to be more of a reaction to the AFC suit filed last
week than a genuine strike against the government. Indeed,
one PPP/C insider claims that Jagdeo and Corbin reached a
private agreement to delay Parliament until the end of
September specifically to allow the PNCR time to address its
internal problems with allocation of seats.

Robinson
Robinson