AG praises Chief Justice’s ruling

ATTORNEY GENERAL AND LEGAL AFFAIRS MINISTER MOHABIR ANIL
NANDLALL IS PRAISING THE RECENT RULING of Chief Justice (CJ), Mrs. Roxanne
George-Wiltshire when she tossed the election petition filed by the A Party for National Unity,
Alliance For Change (AFC) party.
In her dismissing the petition, CJ George-Wiltshire justified her decision noting inter alia,
“there was no breach or violation or non-compliance by GECOM (Guyana Elections Commission)
with the Constitution or the law governing elections such as to make the elections a sham or a
travesty as claimed by the petitioners.”
She said too that “both Section 22 and Order 60 are both intra vires (inside the powers) [and that].
neither provision offends the Constitution.”
“They buttress the provisions to make them implementable,” the CJ said in her televised ruling.
The APNU+AFC, under retired army officer, former President Mr. David Granger, challenged the
results of the much-disputed March 2020 polls and pressed for the recount which eventually found
the Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) coalition won the National and Regional polls.
With even the recount going against the Granger-led coalition, the party, through multiple surrogates,
filed the recount petition. Ms. Claudette Thorne and Mr. Heston Bostwick, the petitioners, argued
that Section 22 of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act is unconstitutional.
They also contended that Order No. 60 of 2020 was invalid, null, void, and of no effect.
Nandlall in hailing the CJ’s ruling said it “confirms what all of us witnessed and was part of. All
of us are aware of the difficulties that were attendant to the tabulation of Region Number Four by
the use of Mingo, the Returning Officer, a spreadsheet as the bases of tabulation as opposed to
the Statements of Poll (SoP).

“Up to now the APNU+AFC has refused and is refusing to disclose to the public and the world
their Statements of Poll which they claim that they have won the elections upon. That by itself
should put to rest issues regarding the credibility and authenticity of their claim. We all knew
that the recount process was done in a fair and transparent way. We all know that the ballots
which were counted at that process were the ballots that were counted on elections night. We all
know what the results were because they were posted on the door and every building before
daylight the following day,” Nandlall said.
The legal representative of the PPP/C government, praised the CJ’s decision because, inter alia,
“it was scrutinised and observed by a team of persons who then-President Granger described as
the most legitimate interlocuters, (i.e) the CARICOM Observer Team and that team rendered a
report in which it said that the process was credible…lawful (and) fair.”
“We are all aware of the attempts by the CEO (of GECOM, Mr. Keith Lowenfield) to
subsequently thwart that process and use a different result for the declaration of the final results
and he failed abysmally at those attempts,” the AG recalled.
He continued: “We have seen for the umpteenth time, how these political leaders in the APNU+
AFC are so cruelly misleading their supporters. When these petitions were filed, any competent
lawyer and any reasonable-minded human being having observed the electoral process, would
have known that these petitions had very little likelihood of success. Any person who has a
rational mind would have concluded that. Yet, when they were filed, there was a big commotion
in front the High Court where they announced to the world, including their supporters, that this is
the petition that will bring the PPP down.”
“In this petition they led no evidence of the irregularities that they are complaining about: the
use of invalid votes (and) that there was absence of statutory documents which would render the
results of the elections invalid,” Nandlall pointed out.
“Even assuming that these were tenable prepositions, they did not lead an iota of evidence to
establish these allegations that they keep parroting every day on television and every day on
Facebook,” the AG declared.

Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Joseph Harmon has indicated that his party will appeal the
CJ’s ruling and intends to go all the way to the Region’s apex court, the Caribbean Court
of Justice (CCJ).