Law and Governance

The Paradox of Plenty: Why Guyana’s Local Content Law Needs a Reality Check

In October 2022, the Guyana Business Journal (GBJ) challenged a panel of experts to deliberate on how Guyana could maximize local capture from its oil and gas sector. The question is pregnant with possibilities. However, Guyana, like other developing countries before it, assumes that a local content law is the secret sauce. Therefore, the discourse […]

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The Masses at the Gate: What’s Behind the People’s Movement in Guyana

For decades Guyana abandoned the principles of a merit-based society, opting instead for a system of political patronage. The country’s private sector followed in the shadows of the ruling political elites, elevating patronage and nepotism above merit and competence. Though One People, One Nation, One Destiny, the probability of success on the merits eluded generations of […]

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Parked in a Legitimacy Gap: Why The Georgetown Parking Meters Controversy is a Political Millstone

The municipality, except for a renegade Deputy Mayor, says the introduction of parking meters in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city, is a necessary leap into modernization. The Private sector, citizens, and activists call the move inhumane, callous, corrupt and a blight on a struggling economy. This gap between what the City thinks of the initiative and […]

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January 29, 2017 | Blogs, Law and Governance

Fit and Proper: An Unnecessary Fight

When a moment in time presents an opportunity for a historian to leave foot prints in the sand, you expect him to seize the moment. The rejection of the list of nominees for Chairman of Guyana’s Elections Commission (GECOM), presented such an opportunity to President David Granger and he demurred. Mr. Granger traded a legacy-making […]

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January 22, 2017 | Blogs, Law and Governance

Dancing on Black Ice Part II: The Reply to Nandlall on the GECOM Brouhaha

Grown accustomed to a nuanced application of legal principles from Guyana’s former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, I was disappointed by his response to my article Dancing on Black Ice: That Legal Threat Over a Nonjusticiable Constitutional Provision. Though his article, The President is Not Above the Law was published as a response, the former AG resorts to sweeping […]

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January 15, 2017 | Blogs, Law and Governance

Dancing on Black Ice: That Legal Threat Over a Nonjusticiable Constitutional Provision

It is hard to think of a more flawed interpretation of an expressed constitutional provision than what we are currently witnessing in the feud over the selection of a Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM). Current President David Granger offers a baffling interpretation of the Constitution and former President Bharrat Jagdeo treats us to […]

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