The Guyana Court of Appeal has set February 8th, 2023 at 9:30 am for hearing of an appeal of the dismissal of the second petition challenging the results of the March 2nd, 2020 General and Regional elections.
With the Court and all the parties confirming at a case management conference (CMC) yesterday morning that they are now in possession of the full record of appeal, the hearing date was announced.
The long-awaited written ruling of acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC throwing out the petition, had stalled the matter for almost two years, and had seen the petitioners presenting a motion back in October for an urgent hearing.
Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde who represents petitioners—Claudette Thorne and Heston Bostwick—had then argued that more than a year after the conclusion of the matter before the High Court, Chief Justice George was still to render her written judgment, which was needed to form part of the record of appeal
Following that hearing, the appellate court had adjourned the matter to facilitate a report on the status of the Chief Justice’s written ruling.
When the case was called again on November 1st for the status update, it was announced that the CJ’s ruling had finally been made available; and so yesterday had been set for CMC.
Ahead of the February 8th hearing, the Petitioners/Appellants have been ordered to file written submissions no later than December 28th; and the Respondents are to respond no later than January 18th.
Thereafter, the Appellants have 14 days in which to reply—by January 22nd—ahead of the substantive hearing.
The appeal is being presided over by acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Yonette Cummings-Edwards, along with Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.
Background
Thorne and Bostwick are adamant that the Elections of March 2nd, 2020, were unlawfully held.
Their petition which was dismissed, sought to invalidate the national recount of ballots cast following the contentious announcement of those polls. Among other things, Chief Justice George ruled that Section 22 of the Elections Law (Amendment) Act 2000 and Order 60 made thereunder by which the recount was facilitated, were not in violation of the Constitution.
It was Thorne and Bostwick’s contention that Order 60 was “bad” in law because it was brought into force by an unlawful piece of legislation—Section 22 of the ELAA.
They wanted the Court to determine among other things, questions regarding whether the elections had been lawfully conducted or whether the results had been, or may have been affected by any unlawful act or omission and in consequence thereof, whether the seats in the National Assembly had been lawfully allocated.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, they lodged an appeal before the Court of Appeal.
The Opposition had filed two petitions challenging the results. In January of last year, Justice George dismissed the first of those petitions after finding that the Party’s presidential candidate David Granger was not served on time.
Petitioners Monica Thomas and Brennan Nurse subsequently appealed to the Guyana Court of Appeal which ruled that it had jurisdiction to hear the challenge.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo and the Attorney General, however, challenged that decision which was overturned by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) back in November.
The Trinidad-based court of last resort for Guyana ruled that the local appellate court has no jurisdiction to hear the matter, since it had not been finally determined on its merits by Chief Justice George and therefore cannot be appealed.
