CCJ schedules single hearing for recount case next Wednesday

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has scheduled a single hearing for the Guyana elections recount case. Noting the urgency and importance of the case to Guyana, the full bench of the CCJ led by the Court’s President Justice Adrian Saunders yesterday, handed down several directives on how the substantive issues of the case will be dealt with during the single hearing scheduled for Wednesday July 1, 2020.

The hearing set to start at 9:00 am on Wednesday concerns a case filed in Guyana’s Appeal Court by Eslyn David against the Guyana

Elections Commission (GECOM). David had asked the Appeal Court to rule on a number of issues regarding the credibility of the General and Regional Elections. Among other things, 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 ruling came after a CARICOM – supervised recount exercise which showed that the PPP/C has over 15,000 votes ahead of the incumbent A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For (APNU+AFC)

Responding parties in the matter which included the PPP/C held that the Court lacked jurisdiction to even hear the matter and subsequently appealed to the CCJ. Yesterday, the CCJ handed down directions as to how parties involved in the matter are to submit their arguments in accordance with the timeline of the Court. Notably absent at the case management hearing were the legal representatives of the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, and GECOM, who are chief respondents. (Kaieteur News)

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