The attorney for Chief Election Officer Keith Lowenfield yesterday maintained that the elections petition filed by the opposition PPP/C’s Ganga Persaud has no material facts and should be struck out, when arguments continued before acting Chief Justice Ian Chang.
Attorney Roysdale Forde will continue his arguments on October 6 at 10 am when the matter is called again. After he is finished presenting his case, Persaud’s lawyer, former Attorney-General Anil Nandlall, will then respond.
Lowenfield has challenged the petition, which he has asked the court to strike out on the grounds that the substantive submissions disclose no reasonable cause of action.
The matter is being heard in-chambers at the High Court, in Georgetown.
The Chief Justice has decided that he should first hear arguments regarding material facts as a prerequisite to determining whether, thereafter, any need would still exist for going into the substantive elections petition case.
To Forde’s argument that sufficient facts have not been pleaded to support the reliefs which are being claimed in the substantive petition, Nandlall said he disagreed as the petition details more than 28 grounds.
The former AG maintains that for each ground being contested by the other side, there are sufficient facts pleaded to support them.
Lowenfield has asked the High Court to strike out the elections petition, saying it is “materially defective” because it fails to establish any grounds to vitiate the polls.
In an affidavit in support of summons, Lowenfield asks that the petition, dated June 24, be struck out and argues that the substantive submissions disclose no reasonable cause of action, and are frivolous and vexatious.
The opposition party’s position since the May 11 general elections is that it has been robbed of votes through a carefully planned rigging process on the part of the APNU+AFC coalition.
In the petition, Persaud called on the court to declare the entire elections process flawed, and containing many procedural errors and so many instances of fraudulent and/or suspicions actions that “the results that have been derived from the process cannot be credibly deemed to represent accurately the will of the electorate.” He also asked the court to order a recount of all ballots cast in the elections.
Local and international observers have declared the polls free and fair.
