Former Finance Minister under the APNU+AFC Government, Winston Jordan, has called out some opposition-aligned lawyers for not doing enough to challenge the legitimacy of Commonwealth citizens who voted at the September 1 General and Regional Elections.
The former Member of Parliament also bemoaned the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (retired) Claudette Singh’s treatment of the issue.
During his recent appearance on the “Countdown” hosted by Andrew Weekes, Jordan said that the Constitutional requirement for Commonwealth Citizens to vote in Guyana is clear.
Article 59 of the Constitution says, “Subject to the provisions of article 159, every person may vote at an election if he or she is of the age eighteen years or upwards and is either a citizen of Guyana or a Commonwealth citizen domiciled and resident in Guyana.”
According to Jordan’s argument, he sees domiciled and resident to be two different criteria which must be met by the Commonwealth Citizen simultaneously.
Speaking to the intent of the crafters of Guyana’s Constitution, Jordan said that he does not believe that “resident” in Guyana alone should be seen fulfilling that voting requirement.
“They [crafters of the Constitution] put in the word ‘domicile’. Commonwealth citizens have to be domiciled and resident! And I’m really shocked to learn some of the responses I saw come out from a retired Justice, Claudette Singh, when it comes to these Commonwealth people. This should never be coming from a justice to say that once they are resident in Guyana for a year and over, they can be registered. No. No,” Jordan lamented.
He argued that names on the National Register of Registrants and the Voters’ List can be removed only when a person has died. He added that if a Commonwealth national returns to their country of origin, their name would still remain on Guyana’s list of electors indefinitely—a situation he maintained the framers of Guyana’s Constitution could never have intended.
“And you know which is the hurtful thing here again, too? You got all them lawyers in the opposition. And not one of them put up their hand to go and get a judicial review on this matter. Not one. Again, plenty talk. No proactivity. None. None. None.
I would excuse Roysdale Forde (Senior Counsel) because he has done a lot in the past five years. He took a whole lot of political cases and won most, if not all, of them. But what happened to the other lawyers? What happened to them?” Jordan questioned.
