Election Petition: Appeal Court rules recount was lawful

threw out the appeal filed against Chief Justice Roxane George’s ruling which dismissed Elections Petition 88 of 2020.

The Chief Justice’s ruling dealt with the recount of the 2020 General and Regional Elections.

The case was presided over by the Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud, who all reaffirmed the Chief Justice’s ruling.

The APNU+AFC’s elections petition #88 of 202 was dismissed over two years ago; it challenges Order 60 of 2020 under which the national recount was done.

Petitioners Claudette Thorne and Heston Bostwick had contended that Section 22 of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act is unconstitutional and that Order No. 60 of 2020, which authorised the recount conducted, was invalid, null, void, and of no effect.

The Appeal Court upheld the Chief Justice’s ruling that the March 02, 2020 election was conducted “lawfully” and there were “no breaches, violations or non-compliance” with the laws of Guyana by GECOM.

Specifically, she said Order 60 of 2020 was lawfully created and used to resolve irregularities, discrepancies, and anomalies occurring in the election process and to determine a final credible count.

Justice Rishi Persaud said that “the doctrine of separation of powers is not offended” in Section 22 and that “there is no evidence on record which will even remotely suggest that an election has been or may have been affected by an unlawful act…”

Under the circumstances, the Chancellor, Justice Persaud and Justice  Gregory ordered that the appeal be dismissed and affirmed the judgement of the Chief Justice.

On the issue of cost, the applicants’ attorney, Roysdale Forde asked the court to consider that the matter was filed by “ordinary citizens.”

However, the respondents asked that the cost be taxed.

“These issues were of great public importance and constitutional value, the fact that it affected the elections and the need to have these issues clarified, even as we approach another election, and is likely to be a very contested election from the point of view of political parties and the interests of the country,” Forde said to the court.

The Court awarded costs in the sum of $150,000 in favour of the four respondents who participated by way of submissions.

This petition is supported by the APNU+AFC coalition accused of derailing the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections.

If the recount order was invalidated by the Appeal Court, the Attorney General said the case will be taken to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Guyana’s apex court.

A second petition #99 of 2020 was also dismissed by the Chief Justice on procedural grounds and subsequently appealed.

The CCJ had ruled that Guyana’s Court of Appeal does not have jurisdiction to hear the appeal filed against the decision of the Chief Justice.