Chief Justice (ag)Roxanne George-Wiltshire has ruled that the no confidence motion, which was voted in the National Assembly last December, was carried.
The Chief Justice in her ruling, given on Thursday, said that 33 persons are the majority of the elected Members of Parliament (MPs), according to the Guyana Chronicle has reported.
On the issue of dual citizenship, the Chief Justice also ruled that the vote of former APNU+AFC MP , Charrandass Persaud was valid even though he was occupying a seat in the National Assembly illegally or against constitutional provisions of the state.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs,Basil Williams subsequently applied for a stay of the judgement passed by the Chief Justice as well as a conservatory order for the government to remain in office until the appeals are heard.
According to the Chronicle, the Attorney General told reporters that government “is going all the way ” as he noted that the case will be appealed all the way to the CCJ .”There is nothing to panic about or nothing to worry about,” he said.”We haven’t lost an election , we will go through the court system,” he said.
Williams reminded that in the Presidential Third term case , the Opposition received favourable judgement in the High Court and the Court of Appeal but later lost its case at the CCJ.
Justice George-Wiltshire was delivering her ruling in the three matters, regarding the validity of the successful opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) motion of no confidence.
She had, earlier this month, heard the arguments in the cases, “Compton Reid vs The Attorney General, Persaud and The Speaker of the National Assembly; Christopher Ram vs The Attorney General and Speaker of the National Assembly; and the Attorney General vs The Speaker of the National Assembly and the Opposition Leader.
The matters arose after the then-government back bencher, Charrandass Persaud, who holds both Guyana and Canadian citizenship, voted with the PPP in the 65-member National Assembly, where the coalition government had previously enjoyed a slender one-seat majority.
Williams had said there was a miscalculation of the majority of all elected members, as required under Article 106 (6) of the Constitution, for the government to be defeated on a vote of no confidence.
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