Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Guyana enacts CWC Sunset Legislation

Saturday, November 4, 2006

by: Gordon French
Caribbean Net News Guyana Correspondent
Email: gordon@caribbeannetnews.com

GEORGETOWN, Guyana: After nearly four hours of debate, Guyana's 65-member Parliament on Thursday unanimously passed the "ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Bill" with an amendment allowing the local courts to impose prison sentences of up to nine months.

The act will govern the 2007 games only for the period of the games, which are scheduled to run from 13 March, at Sabina Park, Jamaica, and end with the Final on 28 April, at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Termed the Sunset Legislation, the passage of the Bill makes provision for the fulfillment of Guyana’s commitment to the efficient and effective staging of International Cricket Council(ICC)Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 and for related purposes.

Even though Guyana enacted the Bill a day after the ICC stipulated deadline of November 1, local organisers stated that it will not affect the staging of the event. The Bill was introduced in the National Assembly on Monday and after careful considerations, Parliament met for a second time yesterday to ensure that no consquences flowed from missing the deadline.

Piloting the Bill through the National Assembly, Minister of Youth Sport and Culture, Frank Anthony urged support for the Bill since hosting world cup cricket has immense sporting, economic and social benefits for Guyana.

The main opposition party, the People’s National Congress Reform-1 Guyana (PNCR-1G) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) pledged support for the Bill and highlighted the severe fines that range from G$320,000 to G$4.8m, which represented the highest approved by the National Assembly.

People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) MP Bernard De Santos in support of the Bill asked that members of the National Assembly consider an amendment to the Bill that will allow the local Courts to impose prison sentences to complement the heavy fines.

As such a Motion was carried for the inclusion of Section 55 (A).

The Amendment reads: "In any case where a monetary penalty is imposed for an offence under this act, the court may impose, as an alternative penalty, a term of imprisonment not exceeding nine months." Among the issues dealt with in the legislation are road closures, deliveries within CWC 2007 venues, sale and distribution of CWC 2007 tickets, issuance of visas and import and export duties.

The purpose of this distinct Legislation is to also bring together the separate existing provisions of the law into one piece of legislation since protections are already enshrined in the various laws of the country.

Some of the restrictions in the Act for CWC include the prohibition of certain advertisements - no person shall publish or display any advertisement that relates to or is connected to CWC 2007 that is false or misleading. If found guilty of this, a fine of G$3.2M will have to be paid by the guilty party. No person shall, other than for personal use, broadcast, telecast, transmit, record, publish, disseminate or circulate by any means -- audio, video photograph, text or data -- information relating to a CWC 2007 activity without the approval of CWC 2007 Inc.

Protection is also provided for commercial rights of the sponsors and rights of holders to prevent "ambush marketing." Cricket World Cup 2007 will be exclusively sponsored by LG, Pepsi, Hutch, Hero/Honda, Indian Oil, Cable and Wireless, VISA and Scotia bank.

AFC MP Khemraj Ramjattan stated that his party fully supports the Bill and has no problem with the fines contained in it, since the Act will also apply to foreigners who will flood Guyana for the event.

"We must ensure that the advertisers get what they have invested into the event…fines that seem ridiculous to Guyanese may not seem so to visitors," Ramjattan stated.

He noted that it is one thing to enact Sunset Legislation but it is another to enforce it.

At one stage, only two of the nine host countries for CWC 2007 had passed the legislation, prompting a warning from Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CWC West Indies 2007 Chris Dehring that if the legislation was not passed by the remaining host countries, the Caribbean could lose its right to host the event.

Since then a number of the host countries have removed the cloud of uncertainty by passing the legislation.

The 97-year-old International Cricket Council is the body that framed and moved the new law along in the nine Caribbean World Cup 2007 host territories of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Drafting for the new law was done in consultation with CARICOM and the Attorneys General of the participating countries.

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