The Caribbean Court of Justice has overturned decisions by the Guyana High Court and Court of Appeal, which rendered the sitting of two PPP Candidates as Parliamentary Secretaries in the National Assembly to be illegal. With the CCJ’s decision, the two Parliamentary Secretaries Vikash Ramkissoon and Sarah Browne, will be able to continue in their role in the National Assembly.

In their ruling, the High Court and the Court of Appeal had contended that Ramkissoon and Browne were not lawful Members of the National Assembly as their names appeared on their party’s list of candidates for the 2020 election and their names were not among the 33 names of persons extracted to take up seats in the National Assembly and as such, they are not eligible to take up seats as non-voting members of the Assembly by Executive appointments as Parliamentary Secretaries.

But in a unanimous decision, the CCJ ruled that the earlier case which the lower courts based their decisions on created some confusion as to who could sit in the National Assembly.

Delivering the judgement, Justice Winston Anderson said the interpretation of the Court is that elected members of the National Assembly are those whose names are extracted from the successful list of candidates whether as ordinary members or as parliamentary secretaries.

“This application allows for a coherent and consistent application of the term throughout the constitution. Additionally, this interpretation also aligns with the provisions of the Representation of the People’s Act. The appeal has been therefore allowed, and the orders of the Courts below were vacated,” Justice Andersons said in his ruling.

Through their Attorneys, led by Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, the Government and the two candidates, Sarah Browne and Vikash Ramkissoon, argued that the Guyana Appeal Court was wrong to throw them out from the National Assembly for being unlawful members, since their names, while on their party’s list, were not among the 33 names extracted to take up seats in the National Assembly.

Browne and Ramkissoon’s contention has been that they had been duly sworn in pursuant to Article 186(3) as non-voting members since at the time of their appointments, they were not already elected members of the Assembly.

Their Attorney argued that both Brown and Ramkissoon are deemed to be Member of the Assembly but not for voting purposes, neither do they enjoy the perks of being a Member of Parliament.

Both the High Court and Court of Appeal had based their ruling on a previous ruling by former Chief Justice Ian Chang in the Morian case, where he had ruled that persons who were on the list of candidates but not extracted, were considered to be elected Members of the National Assembly.

Chief Justice George had found that in accordance with the Morian case, the appointments of Ramkissoon and Browne and their membership of the National Assembly were unlawful and she ordered the Speaker to prevent them from sitting in or participating in the business of the House. The Appeal Court had later affirmed her ruling.

The case was brought by Opposition Chief Whip Christopher Jones.

Related posts:

CCJ begins hearing of Government’s appeal of Parliamentary Secretaries case PPP Candidates cannot sit as Parliamentary Secretaries -Appeal Court affirms Appointment of Brown and Ramkissoon as Parliamentary Secretaries and non-elected MPs illegal -CJ Rules Opposition files Court action challenging “unlawful” appointment of two Parliamentary Secretaries