Court of Appeal to hear elections case on Saturday

The Court of Appeal will Saturday hear the appeal in which APNU+AFC agent Misenga Jones wants the Court to throw out Monday’s decision of Chief Justice Roxane George who ruled that only the votes from the national recount currently stand and that the Chief Elections Officer must do as he is told by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).

The Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield, who is a respondent in the case, has decided not to make either written or oral submissions, his attorney Senior Counsel Neil Boston told the Court.

The judges who will hear and determine the case are High Court judge Priya Sewnarine-Beharry along with Court of Appeal judges Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory-Barnes, who serves as the Court’s President.

The hearing will be live-streamed at 10:00h.

Jones in the application filed by her Attorney Mayo Robertson is complaining against the entirety of the Chief Justice’s judgment on several grounds, including that the Chief Justice erred in law when she ruled that the issues raised were res judicata, or were matters heard and determined before.

The Chief Justice in her definitive ruling said that GECOM must declare the result of the elections of March 02, 2020, only from the data garnered from the national Vote Recount and that any irregularities would have to be addressed in an election petition.

She also ruled that the Chief Elections Officer is subject to the direction and control of the Commission in submitting his report to GECOM.

The ruling which has been described as comprehensive and detailed went against what Jones and by extension the APNU+AFC coalition is now challenging in this appeal where they want the results to be declared using the ten declarations from Returning Officers, including the fraudulent report of Clairmont Mingo which was prepared to hand them a victory.

But Mingo’s declarations and all other declarations made before the recount were dismissed by the Chief Justice in her ruling.

Even before the Chief Justice’s ruling, the Caribbean Court of Justice had already ruled that the votes from the recount are the only valid votes and that GECOM must get the Chief Elections Officer to comply with its direction to prepare a report based on the national recount.