The opposition PPP recently made an application to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to fix an early date to hear its challenge of the decision of the Guyana Court of Appeal upholding the appointment of retired judge James Patterson as Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
This was revealed in a press release issued by the party on Wednesday. “We will continue to accelerate all efforts possible to have that appeal heard earliest,” the release said.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo informed yesterday that the request was made “a few days ago” and that the party is awaiting a response.
Handing down its ruling in October last year, the local appellate court upheld the legality of President David Granger’s unilateral appointment of Justice Patterson as Chairman of GECOM, saying that he did not act unreasonably in doing so.
The court disagreed with arguments advanced by PPP executive Secretary Zulfikar Mustapha that President Granger’s resort to the constitutional proviso in Article 161 (2) for the unilateral appointment of Patterson was unlawfully invoked and resultantly dismissed his appeal of a previous ruling of acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire SC.
In his affidavit supporting his application to the CCJ, Mustapha said that the issues which have arisen in the case are of great general, public and constitutional importance, in as much as they concern the appointment of the chairman of GECOM, which he says is the exclusive constitutional authority responsible for administering and presiding over national elections.
Mustapha is also arguing that the decision of the Guyana Court of Appeal failed to give effect to the “letter and spirit” of the constitutional amendments and is, therefore, “hopelessly misconceived and woefully erroneous in law.”
