CRC recommends reduction in presidential powers
The Constitutional Reform Commission yesterday voted to recommend a reduction in the powers and immunities enjoyed by the president under the present constitution. It has also voted to recommend that no person should serve for more than two terms as president and that those two terms should be consecutive. The agreements reached were as a result of the consultations between the Alliance for Guyana representative Dr Rupert Roopnaraine and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Reepu Daman Persaud, one of five PPP/Civic representatives, following the adjournment of the discussion when the issue was first debated on Thursday. So heated were the discussions on that occasion that Commission Chairman Ralph Ramkarran SC, adjourned the discussions to allow for some informal consultation to see if the differences between the commissioners could be narrowed. It was the accommodations arrived at as a result of those consultations that the commission debated in a five-hour session yesterday. It was only the second time that they have met on a Saturday. Among the decisions taken yesterday by the commission was one, on a majority vote, to strip the president of the power to dismiss a public officer in the public interest as is presently allowed under Article 232(7). Also by a consensus vote the commission agreed to recommend that the president be stripped of the power, now exercised under Article 180(5) of the constitution, to dissolve the National Assembly during the impeachment process. Also by consensus too, it is to recommend the removal of the power of dissolution provided for at Article 170(5) which allows the president to dissolve the National Assembly where it re-presents a bill for his/her assent which he/she had previously withheld. It will recommend too that under this article that a bill will stand assented if after 21 days it is not assented to by the president. The commission is also to recommend, again as a result of a consensus vote, that Article 106 be amended to read that the cabinet, including the president, shall be collectively responsible to the parliament for the control of the Government of Guyana. Also, to be included in the recommendation was for Article 106 to provide that the cabinet, including the president, shall resign if the government is defeated by a simple majority of all the members of the National Assembly on a vote of confidence. In line with its recommendation on Article 106, the commission is also to recommend that Article 107 be amended to provide that the president should appoint a minister or parliamentary secretary who shall be answerable to the parliament for such business not so assigned. Further, also by consensus, the commission has agreed to recommend that Article 120 which allows the president to constitute offices and to make and terminate appointments to these offices, shall be amended to make that power subject to the approval of the National Assembly where the appointments involve expenditure chargeable to the Consolidated Fund. The commission also agreed by consensus to make clear that in the area of the appointment of judges that the president should be bound to act on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), and to recommend the removal of Article 231 which deals with the questions which the court is prohibited from enquiring into where the president is required to act in accordance with advice on the matter of appointments. It has also agreed to recommend that under Article 225, the president will be obliged to act on the advice of the JSC to appoint tribunals for determining whether a person shall be removed from office. The commission has also agreed to refer to its legal experts for advice, proposals dealing with the protection of the dignity of the office of the president as this pertains to either official or personal actions being subject to judicial review. It has also agreed to recommend to the parliament that it should review the impeachment process provided for in Articles 179 and 180 so as to make them less protective of the presidency. Other decisions which the commission has taken with regard to the presidency include the removal, by a majority vote, of the power of the president under Articles 110 and 184, to appoint the opposition leader, who will no longer to be referred to as the 'Minority Leader'. The commission is to recommend that the opposition leader be appointed by the Speaker of the National Assembly after election by and from among those parliamentarians who do not support the Government at a meeting which he/she would chair but would not be entitled to vote.
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