Appellate Court’s majority decision to hear election petition case

Dec 22, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – The Court of Appeal, in a majority decision, yesterday ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear an appeal challenging the decision of Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire to throw out an election petition.

Chancellor of the Judiciary (Ag), Yonette Cummings-Edwards.

The matter continued virtually yesterday, and the judges who presided over the matter are Chancellor of the Judiciary (Ag), Yonette Cummings-Edwards, and Justices Dawn Gregory, and Rishi Persaud. In the case of Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse v the Chief Election Officer, Keith Lowenfield and others, the Justices handed down a 2-1 decision. Justices Cummings-Edwards and Gregory allowed the appeal, while Justice Persaud dissented from their position.
Attorney-at-law Roysdale Forde, SC, the lead attorney representing the appellants, praised the court’s ruling. He said that, in an historic decision, the Appellate Court found that it has jurisdiction to entertain an appeal when an election petition has been dismissed on procedural grounds.

Justice Rishi Persaud.

He added that with the Court’s decision the motion that was filed by Trinidadian Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, on behalf of Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo and Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, on behalf of the Government of Guyana, was dismissed.
In response to the Court’s ruling, Douglas and Nandlall requested a two-week stay on the ruling, so that they can decide whether they will go to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for final determination, or if they will allow the appeal to go ahead – this was granted by the Court.

Justice Dawn Gregory.

All parties in the matter also agreed to pay their own costs.
According to reports, the first election petition #99 challenging the outcome of the March 2, 2020 elections was dismissed by the acting Chief Justice, on January 18, last, while the remaining election petition #88 was also thrown out on April 26, 2021, by the acting Chief Justice. As such, both matters were appealed by Monica Thomas and Brenan Nurse, who on behalf of the A Partnership for Nation Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition are seeking to challenge the validity of the March 02, 2020, national elections.

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