Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, S.C, said the country’s constitutional reform will not impose the PPP/C Administration’s views on the Guyanese public.
Nandlall said the government’s approach to constitutional reform is not one that will impose our government’s view but will take on board what the majority of the consultations produce.
The AG made the remark during a panel interview with the Guyana Dialogue recently where he addressed the status of constitutional reform and electoral changes.
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles that represent the legal basis of a polity, organisation or another type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
The AG said the People’s Progressive Party/Civic government is committed to meaningful reform and “will follow previous PPP initiatives in respect to constitutional reform and that the reform will be based on consultation with the populace and stakeholder organisations… Comprising 50 per cent parliamentary parties and 50 per cent civil society organisations.”
According to the AG, so far, the government has already put before the National Assembly and enacted a constitution reform act that captures these tenets which form part of the PPP/C’s 2020-2025 Manifesto promise.
He said in the absence of the Opposition, the government was forced to continue the process by consultation.
The AG highlighted that this was done because the “government feels that no segment of our population or no political conglomerate has the monopoly of what our constitution should embrace, what its terms should be and what the concepts of that constitution should embrace.”
The AG also stated that the report from the President Irfaan Ali’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the 2020 General and Regional Elections will be taken into account for the constitutional reform process.
Nandlall has however been silent on what measures the government will use to move forward with constitutional reform in the absence of the input of the Opposition. Amendments to the constitution require the input of more than a simple parliamentary majority and or a referendum. According to the Constitution, it is the Opposition that heads the Parliamentary Reform Committee.
