The current criminal proceedings and the elections petitions stemming from the March 2nd polls appear to have led government to shelve its plans to proceed with an independent inquiry into the attempt to manipulate the results.
“Now that the High Court is seized of the matter and will be conducting an inquiry into the elections, we have to examine the situation carefully to see if there is any legal room for any other type of inquiry outside of the criminal charges that have been petitioned,” Attorney General Anil Nandlall told Stabroek News.
“…Under Article 163 of the constitution, the High Court is vested with exclusive jurisdiction to inquire into elections. Once that exclusive jurisdiction has been activated, it may not be possible to activate another civil process in the form of an inquiry, simply because of the nature of the high court jurisdiction,” Nandlall further explained.