Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
Nandlall moves to CCJ for elections petition case
Kaieteur News – The Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, is moving to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), to challenge Guyana’s Court Of Appeal (COA) decision that it has jurisdiction to entertain an appeal filed in relation to the dismissed election petition case.
Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC.
On January 18, 2021, Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire, had thrown out an election petition case. However, the matter was appealed and Guyana’s Appellate Court on December 21, 2021, in a majority decision, ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear an appeal challenging the decision of the acting Chief Justice.
Since then, the Attorney General and others had requested a stay on the Court’s decision, since they have intentions on moving to the CCJ over the Court’s ruling.
Nandlall has since filed his Notice of Motion at the COA, Kingston office on Monday afternoon. According to the Notice of Motion seen by this publication, the Attorney General asked the Appellate Court to grant an order to further stay on its decision pending the appeal to the CCJ.
Following its ruling last month, the Court had granted a two weeks stay, but that stay expired on January 4, 2022. He outlined that it is in the public’s interest that the proceedings before the COA be stayed pending the determination on the intended appeal at the CCJ, the final and apex court of Guyana.
At the CCJ, Nandlall will be challenging the Court’s decision to hear the dismissed election petition case.
According to the document filed, “The intended appeal is a matter of public interest, which touches and concerns national, general and regional elections and as such, are proceedings of great general and public importance.”
It was then stated that the intended appeal is an arguable one with a realistic prospect of success on the issue of whether the Appellate Court has jurisdiction to hear the civil appeal.
Moreover, Nandlall said, “This honourable court has a duty to protect the integrity of appeals so that they are not rendered nugatory before they are heard and determined. Unless the status quo ante is preserved, the intended appeal before the [court] would be rendered nugatory, insofar as the orders granted by this court would take effect before the intended appeal is heard and determined.”
He also highlighted that for the aforesaid reasons, he respectfully asks the Appellate Court, to grant the reliefs sought so that there may be a resolution of these fundamental issues which concerns the interpretation of the Constitution, as well as, issues integral to Guyana’s Constitutional democracy. 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.
Kaieteur News had reported that the Appellate Court judges who presided over the matter were: 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.
It was reported that, 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. He also stated 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 Nandlall, on behalf of the Government of Guyana, was dismissed.
However, 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 CCJ for final determination, or if they will allow the appeal to go ahead. Nandlall has since followed up on the aforementioned intention to move to the CCJ.
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