Respect CCJ’s ruling – CARICOM Chair, Ralph Gonsalves

Jul 10, 2020 News

The newly appointed Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, has called on stakeholders to respect the verdict of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and allow the conclusion of Guyana’s four- month long electoral process.

CARCIOM Chair Ralph Gonsalves

“The Caribbean Community welcomes the progress towards the finalization of the electoral process in Guyana following the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on Wednesday 8 July. The Community calls on all stakeholders to respect the ruling of the CCJ, Guyana’s final court of appeal,” Gonsalves said in a statement last evening.
He pointed out that accordingly, the Court’s ruling should lead to a declaration by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) of the results of the General and Regional Elections held on March 2, 2020 “without further delay”.
“Indeed, the CCJ in the summary judgment aptly stated: It has been four months since the elections were held and the country has been without a Parliament for well over a year. No one in Guyana would regard this to be a satisfactory state of affairs. We express the fervent hope that there would quickly be a peaceable restoration of normalcy,” the CARICOM Chair said.
The CCJ in its ruling on Wednesday said that since it has the jurisdiction to hear the Jagdeo, Ali, et al case, it has the jurisdiction to invalidate the report of Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield, where he sought to invalidate 115,844 valid votes, and same was done.
As such the Commission is slated to meet today, where the CEO is expected to present another report – this time, using the valid figures from the National Recount.
Those figures show a win for the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) at the March 2 Elections with 233, 336 valid votes while the incumbent APNU+AFC Coalition attained 217,920 valid votes.
The CARICOM Chair also commended the “continuing patience and calm of the people of Guyana” and called on all stakeholders to “respect the rule of law”.

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