‘Seizure of jurisdiction is tantamount to a political coup’ …Dr David Hinds warns

Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive, Dr David Hinds has warned that should the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) establishes jurisdiction in the elections matter before it this would be tantamount to a judicial coup.
the CCJ will on Wednesday rule in the case – Irfaan Ali and Bharrat Jagdeo v. Deslyn David and the Chief Elections Officer and others.

Ali and Jagdeo, through their battery of lawyers led by Trinidad’s Senior Counsel, Douglas Mendes, are asking the CCJ to set aside a decision of the Court of Appeal that the words “more votes are cast” in Article 177 (2) (b) should be interpreted to mean “more valid votes are asked.” But while the Court of Appeal relied on Article 177 (4) to rule in the case brought by David, Jagdeo and Ali, through their legal team, are contending that Court of Appeal did not make a decision under Article 177 (4) because it had no jurisdiction to do so.

However, Dr Hinds in a statement Monday said: ”I have concluded that if on Wednesday, the CCJ rules that it has jurisdiction to hear the Guyana case before it, such ruling would be tantamount to an attempted coup. The barriers to the CCJ’s legal intervention are expressed in both the Guyana Constitution and the CCJ Act. There is no ambiguity in that regard. Since the CCJ is barred from legally intervening, any intervention would be political.”
Further, he said any claim of jurisdiction by the CCJ would be a political act with clear political intentions. “It would be a clear attempt to install a party in power against the wishes of half the population and in defiance of constitutional checks. Such action is nothing short of a political coup.” Hinds alluded to remarks by Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran whom he said was explicit in his request of the court to take political action to end the political dispute. “But that is not the court’s power under Guyana’s constitution. Should the court seize jurisdiction it would set in train regional and domestic consequences that would further rip apart Guyana’s fragile national compact and CARICOM’s equally shaky relationship with the CCJ,” Dr Hinds warned.

He said there is already a groundswell of anti-CCJ sentiment among a significant section of the Guyanese populace which would not react kindly to the CCJ seizure of jurisdiction and its potential coup. Such sentiment he said should not be disregarded. “The regional and international forces’ weaponization of the elections’ impasse in favor of one ethno-political contestant and against the other has driven Guyana to the edge. Any attempt by the CCJ to legalise that action would trigger domestic instability that would in turn reopen all Guyana’s historical wounds,” Dr Hinds said.
He said it is against that background that he has warned of dark days ahead if the constitutional power of the Guyana Appeal Court is usurped and the legal-constitutional authority of the Chief Elections Officer is over-run. “Ever so often foreign forces intervene in domestic feuds with scant regard for the consequences for the local community. After four months of back and forth, the electoral saga must be settled by Guyanese who are the best umpires of their situation. The CCJ should steer clear of any overt or covert entanglement. if it is to preserve its expressed autonomy from the domestic politics of member states.

The Guyanese leaders must emerge from their perches and accept where the process has taken them. The legal and constitutional buck stopped with the Court of Appeal binding ruling. GECOM can only respect that ruling and act on it. It is now for the leaders to act. Both parties gambled for four months . and the final outcome is clear. The events of March 4 have been overrun by subsequent events. That is just a plain fact. Calls to annul the elections in the interest of mutual peace were rejected and have also been overtaken by subsequent events,” Hinds concluded.