CEO should submit only valid votes

The Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 margin, today ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear the elections declaration matter and the court also ruled that the words “more votes cast” signifies “more valid votes”.

The constitutional case was filed by Eslyn David – a private citizen – against the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield; the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh; GECOM and the Attorney General, Basil Williams over a decision of the Elections Commission to include ‘tainted’ votes in an Elections Report to be submitted by the CEO, upon which the declaration of the results would be made.

A panel of judges, comprising Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud and High Court Judge Brassington Reynolds, took the bench on Friday at the Court of Appeal to facilitate case management.

Earlier today, Justice Persaud ruled that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the matter deeming the motion filed by David as “simply premature”.Justice Reynolds, who along with Justice Gregory ruled that the court indeed had jurisdiction to hear the matter, said the jurisdiction turns on the election of a President based on Article 177 (4).

Last Friday, a number of parties were added to the case– including representatives of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), A New and United Guyana (ANUG), The New Movement (TNM), Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Change Guyana and the Citizenship Initiative (CI).

PPP/C’s Presidential Candidate, Irfaan Ali and its General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo, were added as respondents in the case on behalf of their political party. They were represented by Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior Counsel, Douglas Mendes, in association with Attorneys-at-Law Devindra Kissoon, Anil Nandlall and Sanjeev Datadin.

ANUG’s Representative, Dr. Mark France; TNM Executive Member, Dr. Joshua Kanhai, and LJP’s Presidential Candidate, Lenox Shuman were also joined to the case following representation by Senior Counsel, Ralph Ramkarran, who appeared on their behalf, in association with Attorney-at-Law Timothy Jonas. Also added to the case were CI’s Executive, Shazam Ally and Kindi Ali of Change Guyana, both of whom were represented by Attorney-at-Law Kashir Khan.

Khan was granted an application for a three-day stay of the orders was granted by the Court.