Someone named Eslyn David has moved to the Court of Appeal to try and stop the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lownefield, from presenting a report of the results of the elections to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) but the Court has not yet heard the matter and no declarations or orders have been granted.
The News Room understands that Court marshalls turned up GECOM with copies of the documents filed, but no judge has heard the matter, and so the documents have no practical effect.
Attorney-at-law Sanjeev Datadin told the News Room that there is nothing that can stop Lowenfield from handing over his report and the chair of the Elections Commission from declaring the results.
Attorney at law Anil Nandlall confirmed an Application has been filed to the Court of Appeal seeking a number of Orders but no date fixed for hearing.
“This is a nuisance value litigation!” he declared, saying GECOM can proceed with its meeting today.
In the case filed, the applicant seeks a declaration that the Guyana Elections Commission has failed to determine a final credible count and or the credibility of the result of the General and Regional Elections and further seeks to prevent Lowenfield from presenting his report.
Lowenfield had until 13:00 hrs to submit his report in accordance with Article 177 of the Constitution and Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act; the Court did not meet before the deadline Lowenfield had.
The Constitution at Article 177 dictates that “if more votes are cast in favour of the list in which a person is designated as Presidential candidate that in favour of any other list, that Presidential Candidate shall be ‘deemed’ to be elected President and shall be so declared by the Chairman of the Elections Commission acting only in accordance with the advice of the Chief Elections Officer…”
Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act deals with the allocation of Parliamentary seats to the political parties.
According to the totals of the recount, using the system of the largest remainder, the PPP will have 33 seats, APNU+AFC has 31 seats and three parties which combined their lists – ANUG, LJP and TNM – secured one seat.
