GECOM must use recount to declare result
Chief Justice (Ag), Roxane George -Wiltshire has dismissed the latest application filed to compel the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to rely on nothing but disputed figures to make the final election’s declarations. The case filed by Misenga Jones, a Counting Agent for A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change (APNU +AFC), was thrown out after the Chief Justice (CJ) determined five main issues raised by her application. Jones had petitioned the High Court for several orders, among them a declaration to prevent the Chief Elections Officer (CEO) Keith Lowenfield from using the recount figures, which show a victory for the Opposition People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) over the incumbent APNU+AFC. The APNU +AFC counting agent wanted the Court to make a declaration that the CEO could instead use nothing but a report based on the March 13 district declarations as the basis on which a final election declaration would be made.
That report with the fraudulent March 13 declarations made by Region Four Returning Officer, Clairmont Mingo, has been rejected by the GECOM Chair, retired Justice Claudette Singh. In her ruling yesterday, the CJ determined the figures derived from the recount of the March 2, 2020 Regional and General Elections are valid and unless overturned by a Court in an election petition, it is the only data that could be used for the declaration.
Justice George-Wiltshire stated too that the previous ten declarations cannot be “resurrected”. At several points in her ruling, the CJ stressed the issues outlined in the application breached the principles of res judicata which essentially meant that the issues outlined in the application were already considered and determined by a court of competent jurisdiction and therefore should not be further pursued by the parties in a similar course of litigation. Justice George-Wiltshire specified that the issues of Jones’ application has already been dealt with by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and Court of Appeal (CoA) and as such could not be otherwise determined by the High Court. The judge said that the High Court is also bound by the rulings the CCJ and CoA—both competent Courts of higher jurisdictions.
( Kaieteur News )