An urgent application under the Judicial Review Act for an injunction to postpone the holding of the Guyana Press Association (GPA) elections scheduled for today was yesterday afternoon thrown out by acting Chief Justice Roxane George.
The Chief Justice ruled that the challenge brought against the current GPA executive was “misconceived” and did not qualify for a full court hearing.
Social media commentator, Mikhail Rodrigues, known as ‘Guyanese Critic’, on Friday filed the matter requesting that the court restrain the executive from hosting the elections until he was granted membership.
In his legal challenge he listed the President of the GPA, Nazima Raghubir; its Secretary, Svetlana Marshall; and Executive Members, Rawle Toney and Denis Chabrol, who currently function as the executives, as the respondents in the case.
After being given a hearing yesterday, the Chief Justice ruled “This application is not urgent.”
“I am not going to allow this to go further, the entire fixed date application is struck out. It has been totally misconceived. The court cannot allow a matter that is misconceived to proceed, for a full hearing,” she added.
Rodrigues in his application stated that the press association had arbitrarily refused his application and by setting the last day of registration as 6th of May 2023, he is aware that several media personnel have been refused registration.
He claimed in his challenge that the rejection of his application is contrary to the requirements for membership established in the GPA’s constitution and has created a negative impact on his work as a journalist. He said he made his application for membership in May 2023.
“Additionally, it has, to the best of his knowledge, always been the practice that persons were able to pay dues and register up until the date of any election of office bearers. This is a naked and contrived attempt by the present executive to exclude persons from the election so that they can fix the election and remain in control of the Association,” he added.
However, during the hearing yesterday, Chief Justice George in her ruling said the GPA is a not an incorporated entity and therefore cannot be the subject of litigation.
“I have gone through the constitution of the Guyana Press Association which is not a corporate or any kind of registered entity that has personality that can be sue or sued,” she explained before ruling that the respondents are not subject to judicial review.
“The respondents are not amenable to judicial review. They are private persons, who happen to be the executive of a private body. None of them is carrying out any administrative function or duty that allows for Judicial Review.”
The Chief Justice also chided Rodrigues’ attorney, Samuel Glasgow, for “cherry picking” the law by only using convenient sections of the Business Names Registration Act in his application.
She pointed out to Glasgow that despite seeking legal action against the executive nowhere in the application did he refer to them.
“There is nothing mentioned about them. It is an unincorporated entity. Don’t cherry pick. Don’t cherry pick. Read the legislation properly, treat it as a whole. Read it properly,” Chief Justice George emphasised in her ruling.
The Chief Justice did not award costs and informed the applicant he would have been made to pay costs if the respondents were present.
The Sunday Stabroek understands that the respondents were not served and were only informed of the court hearing yesterday when they received a Zoom link for the sitting. They reportedly joined the proceedings late.
In the lead up to the election, presidential contender, Neil Marks, along with news editors from 10 different media houses – mostly from the state media – have been calling for the list of eligible voters to be available for scrutiny.
However, the GPA in response said that list will be made public by the returning officer, attorney-at-law Ronald Burch-Smith today to preserve the confidentiality of members who requested this. This response was given on Thursday.
The GPA, nonetheless assured that all eligible members will be allowed to vote in accordance with the body’s Constitution and that every effort has been made to ensure the elections will be free, fair and transparent.
In a notice posted in the Department of Public Information’s WhatsApp Group chat, a petition was signed by some editors requesting the GPA to make the list public. They said they had serious concerns regarding the upcoming annual general meeting, particularly about membership and the voters’ list.
“In the interest of transparency and accountability; to ensure the integrity of the GPA; and to eliminate any concerns about the credibility of the list of voters, we call on the GPA executives… to release immediately the list of all members eligible to vote at the elections on May 14, 2023,” the petition stated.
The editors who signed the petition were from the state-owned Guyana Chronicle and National Communications Network; Times Media Group’s TVG News, INews and Guyana Times; News Room Guyana; MTV News Update; LRTV (Berbice) Info10 (Linden), and Guyana Standard. The group said that the petition was sent to the GPA via email.
Marks had said that he was very disappointed at the decision taken by three of the four executive members. The incumbent Raghubir, who is also contesting the election had noted that she too had not seen the list of voters having recused herself from the discussions and finalisation of the list.
The Association in a statement last week reaffirmed the eligibility of 110 members to vote at the annual general meeting.
