Deputy Chief Election Officer (DCEO) Roxanne Myers has filed a $70 million lawsuit against the Kaieteur News for what she says are libelous statements it published against her in January of this year.
She is seeking damages against the newspaper, its Publisher Glenn Lall and Columnist Freddie Kissoon (the Defendants) over their January 25th, 2021 publication of the article `Jimmy James, Roxanne Myers and the absurd existence of Guyana,’ which she contends contains the alleged libel.
To this end, Myers (the Claimant) is seeking an interim injunction restraining the defendants and/or their agents from further publishing or causing to be published by any means whatsoever, whether electronic or print, the words complained of in the article in question; or any other similar words/statements, until her action has been heard and determined.
She also wants a permanent injunction restraining the defendants whether by their servants and/or agents from further publishing or causing to be published by any means whatsoever, whether electronic or print, the words complained of in the article or any other words/statements to the same or any similar effect defamatory and libelous to her.
She is also asking for a mandatory injunction compelling Lall to forthwith permanently remove the Column written by Kissoon from the online edition of the newspapers and for an apology to be published retracting what she calls the “false, malicious and defamatory statements” impugning her character and reputation.
Myers said that the defendants published her name as one who acted ultra vires in her capacity as Deputy Chief Election Officer regarding the 2nd March, 2020 elections, by not acting on the request made by the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) for the replacement of candidates representing the party on the Potaro-Siparuni Regional Democratic Council (RDC) list.
Through her attorney Eusi Anderson, Myers said that the alleged willful malice on the part of the defendants is to be found in their failure to contact her prior to publication to give her an opportunity to exonerate herself.
She said that the defendants then compounded the malice “by making reckless, false and libelous statements” about the steps, processes and procedures a political party must comply with at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) for the change of its RDC nominees.
The DCEO said that the defendants in the publication expressed “no knowledge or training on the steps, processes and procedures that GECOM implements to approve a replacement candidate for a political party’s RDC list.
“It was reckless for the Defendants to publish those libelous statements in the context of such advertised ignorance,” Myers said.
She goes on to contend that given the gravity of the allegations made against her, she ought to have been afforded some manner of due process to hear and confront the allegations against her and be invited to comment or, at the very minimum, educate the Columnist on the procedure of nominating replacement candidates for an RDC list.
The words published against her she, said, were “untrue, malicious and penned in undiluted falsehood.”
Myers denies ever acting beyond her capacity and says that the allegations levelled against her by the Defendants “have substantially hurt and diminished” her image in the eyes and minds of the public.
She said that Lall and Kissoon, by the publication, meant to convey to readers that she was among other things; dishonest, unscrupulous, unprofessional, is perverse and of questionable character and has no integrity; and engages in “unethical, immoral and illegal behavior.”
Myers said that the article also sought to convey that she is political in the discharge of the functions of her office and could be politically biased, compromised and/or corrupt—in contravention of her oath and standards expected of her as a significant functionary “of the constitutionally independent” Elections Commission.
The Claimant said that the article has injured her reputation, credit, and has subjected her to ridicule; while noting that her character continues to be eroded as the article is still on the newspaper’s website.
