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Appeal Court throws out case to stop elections declarations
– Judges agree that recount figures must be used to declare winner
The Court of Appeal today threw out the appeal in elections declarations case filed on behalf of A Partnership for National Unity – Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), Misenga Jones to stop the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from making a declaration of the elections results based on the recount figures.
The recount figures show a victory for the Opposition led – People Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) over the incumbent APNU+AFC by over 15 ,000 votes.
Jones had wanted the Court to decide that Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of GECOM Keith Lowenfield can submit the report derived from his own calculations in the process rather than the recount figures despite a recent endorsement of the CARICOM- supervised recount process by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) – Guyana ‘s Apex Court.
Given the recent ruling of the CCJ in a similar matter, Jones request was considered wholly ill-conceived and waste of the Court‘s precious time by the Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George- Wilsthire, in her ruling last week.
Today, again, the application by Jones and her legal team was turned down unanimously by three Justices at the Appeal Court.
In separate rulings, High Court Justice Priya Sewnarine- Beharry, Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud dismissed Jones appeal as well as a cross appeal filed by Attorney General (AG) Basil Williams.
In her judgment, Justice Sewnarine Beharry held frivolous, vexatious and amounts to an abuse of the court’s process.
She noted to that as a statutory officer of GECOM, the CEO is subject to the direction of the commission and must therefore carry out his functions in accordance with it directives.
Justice Persaud held similar views on the matters raised in the appeal. He called the case a classic case of the abuse of process and pointed to a number of points in which the matter was res judicata or decided on before by courts of competent jurisdiction.
In her ruling that followed, the Court’s President also agreed that the appeal lacked merit. She told the parties that several of the issues raised by Jones appeal are best suited for an Elections Petition, which can only take place after the elections has concluded.
Gregory said too that CEO should have no trouble carrying out the instruction of the commission to prepare his report based on the recount figure since he, himself would have supervised the process.
“I see no difficulty in that, in him complying swiftly to complete this process,” she said.
Essentially, all three Justices agreed with the reasoning of the Chief Justice that recount figures are the only data that can be used to determine the final result of the elections
By the end of the judgment, both Attorneys representing Jones and the AG indicated their intention to appeal to the CCJ.
Their application for stay of the judgment was initially denied by the Court in the face of strong opposition from several opposing legal team. However, in the end, the Court granted them a 24 hours stay for consideration on their way forward.
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