THE Court of Appeal will soon hand down its ruling in the case filed by the APNU+AFC concerning dismissed Election Petition 88 of 2020, which was thrown out by the High Court two years ago.

The case was filed 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.

The applicants, Claudette Thorne and Heston Bostwick, filed an appeal some 18 months after the CJ had handed down her decision.

Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, who represented the petitioners, had contended 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.

Following the hearing, the court led by Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, announced that notices would be sent to the parties when the decision is ready.

Previously, the Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., in his oral submissions, 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 Attorney-General 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.

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

In the notice of appeal, the applicants indicated that they are challenging the Chief Justice’s April 2021 decision to dismiss the petition.

When the matter was filed at the High Court, Thorne and Bostwick, in their documents, had asked the 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.

Election Petition 99 of 2020, which was filed on behalf of petitioners, Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse, was thrown out by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in October 2022.

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.