The APNU+AFC coalition is confident about meeting the deadline for the submission of its Elections Petition to the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections, and looks forward to a similar keenness of the international community and expeditiousness of the court as displayed during the elections.

Speaking to Guyana Chronicle on Friday, attorney-at-law representing the coalition, Roysdale Forde, said that contrary to concerns, the coalition is not experiencing difficulties with its election petition.

He said that it would be filed in accordance with the law which allows for the same to be filed 28 days after the results are gazetted in the Official Gazette.

Questioned who are the other lawyers likely to represent the coalition on the matter, Forde did not state, save to note that there would be a “team of lawyers”. The newspaper also questioned the lawyer on whether the coalition party holds concerns about the length that such a petition could take to make passage through the court.

Forde acknowledged that past failures to have a swift hearing of such matters could be attributed to a wide range of factors. Two of which he listed were judicial systemic challenges which impair the ability of the court to have swift hearing and lack of interest by the petitioners after the matter is filed.

This newspaper therefore questioned the attorney-at-law on what guarantee the party has that lengthy delays will not occur. To this, he responded: “The guarantee which we have and on which we rely is the guarantee that the law provides and guarantees a swift hearing.”

Furthermore, the coalition expects that the international community, local groups and political parties which urged the APNU+AFC to address its grievances on the elections via an election petitions, respect the party’s decision to move in this direction.

Former chair of CARICOM, Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, had stated in June on Guyana’s elections crisis: “We must remind all that if there is any evidence of fraudulent or improper conduct then there is a clear and well accepted route to deal with these matters. It is through an elections petition to an Election Court.”

The Organisation of American States (OAS) had also urged: “In these circumstances, the OAS General Secretariat expects that anyone who wishes to challenge the validity of any of these votes should do so through an elections petition filed in the High Court, after GECOM declares the election result based on the recount data.”

As such, Forde told the newspaper on Friday: “We would also be expecting the international and diplomatic community, CARICOM, civil society, the Bar Association, to demonstrate the same keenness in this aspect of the electoral process and democracy. Also, the courts have dealt with electoral pre-declaration litigation quite expeditiously, we would expect no less in the electoral post declaration litigation which will be filed.”

Prior to a declaration by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), then President, David Granger, accepted that a declaration must be made in keeping with the decision of the court with regards to the use of the national recount data but vowed that his party would fire back by way of an elections petition.