Georgetown: The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in a case management conference on Thursday assured that nothing outside the courtroom would be used to determine the case ahead as the court proceeds to hear the appeal filed by the People’s Progressive Party, challenging the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal to hear the motion filed by private citizen Eslyn David.
Thursday’s case management conference was intended to determine the processes to be adopted to have the matter heard.
The Court of Appeal had ruled that in determining the results of the elections, the country’s Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, must do so based on who received the most “valid” votes.
The CCJ has also been asked to look into whether the Court of Appeal exceeded its Jurisdiction in its ruling.
Notwithstanding, the CCJ said nothing should be done to prejudice the issues before the court and that the status quo remains.
Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo and PPP Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali took the case to the CCJ over fears that the Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield would use the figures he alone, in agreement with APNU+AFC, calculated after removing over 115,000 votes.
Last Tuesday when the Chief Elections Officer submitted a new report in which he dumped over 115,000 votes and gave APNU+AFC majority of the votes to form a new government even though the certified and valid votes from the recount showed the PPP winning the elections by 15, 416 votes.
The applicants, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo and PPP’s Presidential Candidate Irfaan Ali and all respondents in the matter, which include the incumbent APNU+AFC coalition and the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Justice Claudette Singh have been given timelines for the submission of all written submissions.
The CCJ, headed by President, Justice Adrian Saunders will hear oral submissions on Wednesday, July 1 commencing at 09:00h.
CCJ President, Justice Adrian Saunders also made it clear that “you can rest assured that the Bench is going to treat with this matter only on the basis of the material that you and your colleagues- those with you, those against you- those who are in this court today on the basis if what you submit and that is what is always done certainly by this court so you can rest assured that we are not going to have regard to anything which is being said outside of the court and which does not feature as a relevant part of these proceedings.”
Also, the CCJ has been asked to consider if the Court of Appeal lacked such jurisdiction what is the consequences of that through the CCJ and also if the Court of Appeal had rightfully assumed jurisdiction then also what are the consequences.
When written submissions are made, Justice Saunders made it clear that the CCJ does not want to have repetitious submissions or those that delve into matters not particularly relevant.
“We believe that your submissions can be captured in no more than 10 pages…” Justice Saunders said.
Incoming Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves had publicly urged President Granger to concede defeat based on the recounted votes.
Outgoing CARICOM Chairman, Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley publicly slammed Guyana’s Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield for invalidating 115,000 votes instead of counting all valid votes cast and recounted. The United States, Britain, Canada, European Union, Organisation of American States, and the Commonwealth have all called for the recount data to be used to declare the final election results.
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