Nandlall says elections petitions lacks merit; Harmon confident of a win

Two days before the Elections petitions filed by the APNU+AFC Opposition comes up for case management, Attorney General Anil Nandlall has said the case is doomed to fail.

Nandlall told the media on the sidelines of an event at State House on Tuesday morning that the case lacks merit.

He said the matters in the petitions have already been dealt with during the five-month-long electoral process. These cases included the constitutionality of the Recount Order, the constitutionality of Section 22 of the Elections Law Amendment Act and allegations of voter impersonation raised during the national recount.

“…they ought not to be re-litigated and at the appropriate time, the appropriate application will be made to the court,” he said.

As such, the AG said: “I am confident that the petitions will be dismissed and hopefully they are heard and determined quickly and dismissed and disposed of.”

However, Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon is confident that his party will secure a win.

Speaking at a virtual press conference on Monday, he said “we take this opportunity to restate our confidence in the Elections Petitions which are before the Court and will vindicate our consistent claim that the PPP regime was placed in Government on the basis of fraud.”

The APNU+AFC’s 2020 Elections Petitions comes up for case management on Thursday before Honourable Chief Justice Roxanne George.

The applicants in the case want the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to use the vote count from the Ten Returning Officers to declare the results of the elections. That would include the District Four vote Count which has been condemned as fraudulent.

The petitioners contend that the Chief Elections Officer was not required to use the data from the national vote recount to produce his elections report from which the results were declared.

Alternatively, the petitioners want the Court to order fresh elections in 90 days after its ruling on the case.