‘No need to dissolve Parliament now’, President says

With general and regional elections set for March 2, 2020, President David Granger says he is under no “constitutional requirement” to dissolve Parliament at this time.

The President told reporters that the issue was discussed at Cabinet Tuesday and he is awaiting advice from the Attorney General, Basil Williams.

“…at this stage there is no constitutional requirement to dissolve Parliament. We’re awaiting the advice of the Attorney General and at present, we have not breached any constitutional principle and when we get that advice, Cabinet will advise me and we will dissolve Parliament but there’s no need for it to be done now,” the Head-of-State told reporters at the sidelines of an event at the Ministry of the Presidency Wednesday.

According to the constitution, elections must be held within three months after the dissolution of Parliament.

Article 61 of the Constitution states that “An election of members of the National Assembly under article 60 (2) shall be held on such day within three months after every dissolution of Parliament as the President shall appoint by Proclamation.”

Meanwhile, the President, who is also the Leader of the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), said the Cummingsburg Accord which formed the coalition with AFC has been revised and is being reviewed.

“It has been revised, as far as the APNU is concerned, the APNU Executive Council hopefully will be scrutinizing the revised draft this week, hopefully by Friday. It has been written already and as soon as that is done, we will submit it to the AFC for their consideration.”

The coalition is set to launch their elections campaign in January 2020.