PPP, PNCR properties have different ownership structures

Last Updated on Sunday, 15 December 2024, 13:43 by Writer

It has been revealed that ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled decision on whether political parties should be properly registered so that, among other things, they could hold property and be sued in their names and that their actions are constitutionally integral to the country, Guyana’s two major parties have different ownership structures for their properties.

PPP General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo at his latest news conference said the majority of his party’s properties are in its name and a few in are in a decades-old PPP holding company, Guyana Import-Export (GIMPEX) and New Guyana Company, publisher of that party’s Mirror newspaper. “Ninety-percent of our properties are in our name or maybe one or so in a company but they are where the PPP has majority shares,” he said. On the issue of debt to the Georgetown City Council, he said all taxes were paid. “We ensure that our taxes are all up to date,” he said.

It is unclear how a political party, as an unincorporated association, could hold shares in a company.

In court papers filed by the Attorney General’s Chambers in the case by People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) member Brian Collison, who is seeking several declarations concerning the status and functions of political parties, acknowledged that political parties in Guyana have no legal regime. “They are quintessentially unincorporated associations having no legal personality.” He said the High Court could not be asked to confer any status “in any capacity”. The State’s contention that the Companies Act is the avenue that has to be used to register political parties has been rebuffed by Mr Collison on the ground that political parties are not of the same species as commercial entities and therefore were not within the contemplation of the legislature when it enacted that law.

PNCR Leader, Aubrey Norton at the weekend confirmed to Demerara Waves Online News that his party’s properties are vested in the name of a company called Maikwak. “For more than 20 years, the party got a company called Maikwak and the leadership of the party knows about the properties and where they are,” he said.

Official records show that the land at Sophia on which its Congress Place headquarters is constructed is in the name of Maikwak. However, like his party’s Treasurer, Elson Lowe, the PNCR Leader declined to discuss a reported GY$6.7 billion debt in rates and taxes to the Georgetown City Council.

The PNCR member said a primary issue before the court is whether political parties are entities recognised by the Constitution such that they can sue and be sued in their own names, hold property, assume contractual obligations, and enforce rights in their own names. “This and every other issues presented in this case require interpretation of the Constitution,” he said through his lawyer. Rebutting this point, Attorney General Anil Nandlall said the court does not have an inherent jurisdiction to declare political parties’ legal persons without the legal sanction of the Parliament. “Parliament has to legislate and the court cannot arrogate onto itself the function of the legislature.”

Attorney-at-Law Vivian Williams, for Mr Collison, said he was not asking the court to declare that political parties are organs of the state, but that they perform State functions.

Mr Collison has filed a separate case against the PNCR challenging the legitimacy of that party’s process that was used to prepare for its Biennial Delegates Congress held this year to elect a leader and other members of the Executive, many of whom are highly likely to be on the PNCR’s ticket for the 2025 general and regional elections. “The State, through the Constitution, delegates to political parties, the authority and function to exclusively determine candidates who appear on election choices from which Guyanese may exercise their right to elect representatives,” he said.