Court prepares for full-blown election petition trial as lawyers gather list of witnesses, evidence 

As the Case Management Conference (CMC) opened on Thursday for the Election Petition Cases, Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde said in the Election Petition Case – Claudette Thorne and Heston Bostwick vs. Chief Elections Officer and others (Petition  88) he will prove that not only was Order No. 60 was invalid but also that the Law – Section 22 of the Elections Laws (Amendment) Act on which it was created, is unconstitutional and conflicts with the Representation of the People Act.

Forde, a Senior Counsel, is representing the Petitioners together with Trinidad and Tobago Senior Counsel John Jeremie; and Attorneys-at-Law Raphael Trotman and Olayne Joseph.

Petitioners, through the battery of lawyers, are challenging the decision of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to conduct a National Recount of all votes cast at the March 2 General and Regional Elections using Order No. 60. GECOM had relied on the Constitution and Section 22 of the Elections Laws (Amendment) Act to bring the Order into effect. Further, it was based on figures generated during the National Recount that President Irfaan Ali was declared President of Guyana.

In his virtual appearance before Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire, Forde told the Court that GECOM, by relying on Order 60 and Section 22 of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act, erred in law.

“In this petition also your honours, the legitimacy of the Elections Report, under Section 96 [of the Representation of the People Act] is required to be based on the information furnished by the 10 Returning Officers. In fact, in this case it was generated [based] on documents not referred to in the Representation of the Peoples Act, purportedly created under Order 60 of 2020,” Forde told the Court.

He was keen on pointing out that the Elections Report was based on Certificates of Recount generated during the National Recount.

“We believe that the consequential declarations made by the Elections Commission and the Chairman of the Elections Commission, declaring that Irfaan Ali was duly elected as President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana would consequently be unconstitutional,” the Senior Counsel said.

The battery of lawyers has also submitted to the Elections Court an Affidavit in Support of the Petition together with exhibits. Petition 88 is based solely on legal issues and as such, there will be no witnesses or tendering of evidence.

PETITION 99 

In the other Election Petition Case – No. 99 of 2020 – filed by Monica Thomas – Attorney-at-Law Mayo Robertson said the team of lawyers representing the petitioners is fine tuning its list of witnesses in anticipation of a full blown trial.

“This petition is going to require substantial evidentiary support and it is anticipated that several witnesses will be called a long with the Petition detailed Affidavit already filed. Several people will be called to support the allegations set out in the details of those Affidavits,” Robertson told the Chief Justice.

Robertson, who forms part of a team of lawyers representing the petitioners, will argue that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) failed to conduct free and fair elections in keeping with its constitutional requirements and as such, the results of the 2020 General and Regional Elections, as declared by GECOM, be vitiated.

“Petition 99 of 2020 is based on allegations of several irregularities in the conduct of the elections. It includes widespread voter impersonation, widespread noncompliance with documentation as is required, the flawed voters list to begin with and several other irregularities,” Robertson detailed.

Robertson is appearing in association with Senior Counsel Rex McKay and Attorneys-at-Law Khemraj Ramjattan, Darren Wade, Gary Best and Geeta Chandan-Edmond.

Both groups of Legal Counsel have asked the Court not to consolidate the Elections Petition Cases on the grounds that though they make seek similar reliefs, fundamentally they treat with different issues that arose during the conduct of the March 2 General and Regional Election.

In both petitions – the respondents are listed as the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield; David Granger, Representative of A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change; Horatio Edmondson, Representative of Federal United Party; Bharrat Jagdeo, Representative of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic; John Flores, Representative of the Liberty and Justice Party; Asha Kissoon, Representative of the New Movement; Vishnu Bandhu, Representative of the United Republican Party; Abedin Kindi Ali, representative of Change Guyana; Patrick Bourne, Representative of People’s Republican Party; Jonathan Yearwood, Representative of the A New and United Guyana; and Shazaam Ally, representative of the Citizen Initiative.

The Attorney General Anil Nandlall has also been added as a respondent in both petitions.