-AG tells court

ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., on Wednesday, asked the Court of Appeal (CoA) to throw out the case filed by the APNU+AFC concerning Election Petition 88 of 2020, which was dismissed by the High Court two years ago.

The case was filed by Claudette Thorne and Heston Bostwick to challenge the ruling of Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George, S.C., who had dismissed the petition due to serious non-compliance with the Constitution of Guyana, electoral law and other infringements.

In his oral submissions to the CoA on Wednesday, Nandlall said that, in addition to the absence of material facts, no foundation has been laid in the petition to establish any grounds upon which the elections can be vitiated.

“The appellants’ submissions are quite narrow in their compass when compared to those which they canvassed in the court below. They seem to have abandoned their frontal challenge to Order 60, redirecting their focus to challenging Parliament’s delegated power expressed in Section 22 of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act.

“No doubt, their implicit reasoning is, if the delegation is improper, then everything which flows therefrom would fall away,” the AG said.

Nandlall further highlighted that there is absolutely no evidence contained in the petition to suggest that the results produced by the recount process is different from that of the original results derived from the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.

As a result of this, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, the presidential candidate for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), was deemed to be elected as President and was so declared by the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission, in accordance with Article 177 (2) (b) of the Constitution of Guyana.

“One cannot discount from this equation, the composition of three Government nominees, three Opposition nominees and a Chairman appointed by the President from names submitted by the Leader of the Opposition, with this Chairman being vested with a casting vote. So, the representatives of the political parties on that Commission agreed to the terms of Order 60 and obviously professed to be bound thereby.

“It is therefore an act of great reprobation for the appellants, who are clearly representatives of the APNU+AFC, whose nominees sat on that Commission, to now try to impugn Order 60 and the results flowing therefrom because those results do not favour them,” AG submitted.

It is against this background that Nandlall asked the court to dismiss the appeal with an appropriate order in respect of costs.

The CoA adjourned the case until March 22, 2023, for further submissions.

The applicants, filed the appeal some 18 months after the CJ handed down her decision.

Among other things, they are contending that the Chief Justice erred in law and misdirected herself when she misapplied the doctrine of strict compliance.

Another claim is that the Chief Justice erred and misdirected herself when she failed to consider the objective of the petition in making her decision based on the content of the Affidavit of Service.

Thorne and Bostwick had asked the lower court to determine the legality of the March 2 elections, and the results that led to the declaration and allocation of seats in the National Assembly.

They sought an order directing the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh, to declare former President David Granger the winner.

This is the APNU+AFC’s second attempt at challenging the results of the elections. Their other petition, Election Petition 99 of 2020, was thrown out by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in October 2022.

The applicants in that case were Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse.

The CCJ ruled that the CoA does not have the jurisdiction to hear and determine the appeal filed to challenge the dismissal of that petition.

In January 2021, it was dismissed by the Chief Justice due to late service, non-service, or improper service.