Appeal Court to set date for decision on Coalition’s Election Petition

Arguments on the APNU+AFC Coalition’s only remaining election petition, Petition 88 – the second one having been thrown out by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) – concluded in the Appeal Court on Wednesday (March 22, 2023).

And the Chancellor (act- ing), Yonette Cummings-Edwards, announced that the Court will dispatch notices informing parties of the date on which it will be delivering its judgment.

Petition 88

Petition 88 was dismissed in the High Court by the Act- ing Chief Justice, Roxanne George-Wiltshire. Delivering her almost two-hour long virtual ruling, she underscored the fact that the petitioners had presented not a single piece of evidence to substantiate purported irregularities they sought to advance.

The Coalition, on June 3,

2020, filed an appeal in the case of Petition 88, arguing that the ruling judge erred in the decision that was handed down. The matter is still before the Guyana’s Court of Appeal. November 1, 2022 has been set as the date for a report on the status of the records including the full judgment by Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire.

Petition 88 argues that the Recount Order was illegal and unconstitutional and therefore the declaration of results based on the recount is illegal and unconstitutional.

The petitioners, Ms. Claudette Throne and Mr. Heston Bostwick were asking the Court to declare the election results null and void. In further seeking to do so, the petitioners are challenging the national vote recount process, Section 22 of the Elections Laws Act and Order 60 of 2020, which governed the recount.

Thorne and Bostwick are represented by Attorney-at-law and Coalition Parliamentarian, Roysdale Forde.

Petition 99 Dismissed At Ccj

Notably, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), on October 19, 2022, ruled that the Court of Appeal (CoA) in Guyana does not have the jurisdiction to hear and determine the appeal filed to challenge the dismissal of the APNU+AFC Coalition’s Election Petition 99 of 2020.

Justices Jacob Wit, Maureen Rajnauth-Lee, Denys Barrow, Winston Anderson and Peter Jamadar presided over the case at the CCJ, which is Guyana’s final court of appeal.

Petition No.99, which challenged the final election results, was nullified by the Acting Chief Justice on the grounds of non-compliance of service on the second named respondent, former President Mr. David Granger.

Petition 99, argued that fraud was committed in the March 2020 Elections and over 115,000 votes were affected, benefiting the PPP/C. So far, Petition 99 has been thrown out and the other will move forward.

Petition 99 of 2020 was filed on September 15, 2020, by APNU+AFC Coalition agents Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse. Thomas and Nurse named Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield; David Granger – APNU+AFC Coalition; Horatio Edmonson – Federal United Party; Bharrat Jagdeo – People’s Progressive Party/ Civic; John Flores – Liberty and Justice Party; Asha Kissoon – The New Movement; Vishnu Bandhu – United Republican Party; Adebin Kindi Ali – Change Guyana; Patrick Bourne – People’s Republic Party, Jonathan Yearwood – A New and United Guyana; Shazam Ally – The Citizenship Initiative; and Gerald Perreira of Organisation for the Victory of the People as respondents. The Attorney General Chambers also joined the proceedings. In Guyana’s High Court, Acting Chief Justice dismissed Petition 99 on June 14, 2021.

The Appeal Court on December 21, 2021, ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear the appeal of Elections Petition 99, which was dismissed by the High Court. While the matter was at the Appeal Court, Jagdeo’s lawyers had argued that there can only be an appeal after a determination is made in manner and this was not done in the case of Election Petition 99.

March 2020 Election Fraud case adjourned to April 18th

The seven persons currently before the Magistrate’s Court for charges related to fraud perpetuated during the March 2020 General and Regional Elections are expected back in court on April 18, 2023.

The matter was called on Monday (March 13, 2023) before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.

In June 2021, former Chair of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Volda Lawrence; former Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM)

District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo; APNU+AFC Coalition activist, Carol Smith-Joseph; and four staffers from the Guyana Elections

Commission

(GECOM)

Secretariat - Sherfern February, Enrique Livan, Denise Bobb-Cummings and Michelle Miller – were charged with conspiring with each other to commit fraud by altering votes cast in the March 2nd 2020 National and Regional elections.

They were each placed on $100,000 bail when the matter was initially called before Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus.

The signatures of Lawrence and Joseph were on manipulated declarations for Region 4– issued on March 5, 2020 and March 13, 2020 – that were prepared by Mingo. In both