The APNU/AFC is grasping at straws.  No petition signed by them had no merit. They will lose today.   

Vexatious litigation to harass de ole lady. I see it as an abuse of the judicial process.

The judges in their rulings today also agree that charges against the GECOM Chair have no merit.

@Former Member posted:

The judges in their rulings today also agree that charges against the GECOM Chair have no merit.

When did they say any such thing?  

Appeal Court throws out case to stop elections declarations

– Judges agree that recount figures must be used to declare winner

Jul 30, 2020 News 0 , Source - Kaieteur News Online - https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...ctions-declarations/

The Court of Appeal today threw out the appeal in elections declarations case filed on behalf of A Partnership for National Unity – Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), Misenga Jones to stop the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) from making a declaration of the elections results based on the recount figures.

The recount figures show a victory for the Opposition led – People Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) over the incumbent APNU+AFC by over 15 ,000 votes.

Jones had wanted the Court to decide that Chief Elections Officer (CEO) of GECOM Keith Lowenfield can submit the report derived from his own calculations in the process rather than the recount figures despite a recent endorsement of the CARICOM- supervised recount process by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) – Guyana ‘s Apex Court.

Given the recent ruling of the CCJ in a similar matter, Jones request was considered wholly ill-conceived and waste of the Court‘s precious time by the Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George- Wilsthire, in her ruling last week.

Today, again, the application by Jones and her legal team was turned down unanimously by three Justices at the Appeal Court.

In separate rulings, High Court Justice Priya Sewnarine- Beharry, Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud dismissed Jones appeal as well as a cross appeal filed by Attorney General (AG) Basil Williams.

In her judgment, Justice Sewnarine Beharry held frivolous, vexatious and amounts to an abuse of the court’s process.

She noted to that as a statutory officer of GECOM, the CEO is subject to the direction of the commission and must therefore carry out his functions in accordance with it directives.

Justice Persaud held similar views on the matters raised in the appeal. He called the case a classic case of the abuse of process and pointed to a number of points in which the matter was res judicata or decided on before by courts of competent jurisdiction.

In her ruling that followed, the Court’s President also agreed that the appeal lacked merit. She told the parties that several of the issues raised by Jones appeal are best suited for an Elections Petition, which can only take place after the elections has concluded.

Gregory said too that CEO should have no trouble carrying out the instruction of the commission to prepare his report based on the recount figure since he, himself would have supervised the process.

“I see no difficulty in that, in him complying swiftly to complete this process,” she said.

Essentially, all three Justices agreed with the reasoning of the Chief Justice that recount figures are the only data that can be used to determine the final result of the elections

By the end of the judgment, both Attorneys representing Forde and the AG indicated their intention to appeal to the CCJ.

Their application for stay of the judgment was initially denied by the Court in the face of strong opposition from several opposing legal team.

However, in the end, the Court granted them a 24 hours stay for consideration on their way forward.

Victoria woman denies knowing name used to file charges against GECOM Chair, but now agrees

By Editor On Jul 30, 2020, Source - News Room - https://newsroom.gy/2020/07/30...hair-but-now-agrees/

One hour after the News Room spoke with the relative, Onita Walcott appeared in a live video on the Facebook page of APNU member James Bond

Onita Walcott, one of the individuals whose name appeared on court documents as filing private criminal charges against the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Justice (rt’d) Claudette Singh has said she did not know her name was being used but has now agreed.

According to Court documents, Walcott, a member of the APNU+AFC Coalition, resides at Lot 25 Section ‘B’ Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara (ECD).

On Thursday, a voice note began circulating in which Walcott expressed shock that her name appeared in the news as being one of the persons to file private criminal charges against the GECOM Chair.

The News Room visited Victoria on Thursday and a very close relative of Walcott confirmed that she did not give anyone consent to use her name. The relative further disclosed that the 39-year-old woman was on her way to Georgetown to speak with party officials.

“Onita ain’t got no money to take nobody to court. She supports the party but she [didn’t] know her name was on the court document,” the relative stated.

One hour after the News Room spoke with the relative, Walcott appeared in a live video on the Facebook page of APNU member James Bond where she said she did indeed tell her boss, “I know nothing about it.”

But she has since retracted her previous statement.

Walcott stated: “Nobody can’t lead me to do nothing but they make it seem like someone put a gun to me head ‘yuh got to do this thing.’ No, no one did but people keep asking me [and I say] no, I know nothing about it.”

Walcott along with Lorraine Joseph of Melanie Damishana, ECD and Keith Ondaan of Central Amelia’s Ward, Linden are named in Court documents as having filed three private charges against the Chairperson on GECOM for misconduct in public office.

They are represented by Attorney Maxwell Edwards.

According to the document, the applicants are alleging that the GECOM Chair between the 14^th March 2020, 13^th June 2020 and 23^rd of June acted recklessly and unlawfully when she refused to accept the Chief Elections Officer’s report on the March 2 elections.

On March 14, the CEO presented his elections report containing fraudulent votes inflated by the Returning Officer of Region Four Clairmont Mingo to show a win for the APNU+AFC Coalition.

On June 13, the CEO submitted a report to GECOM showing a larger margin for the incumbent APNU+AFC than the victory handed to them by Mingo.

In his report, Lowenfield reduced the number of valid votes recounted from 460,352 to 160,260 – which would effectively mean that 275,092 or 60% of the electorate would be disenfranchised.

Of the 185,260 votes which the CEO considers valid, 125,010 or 67% is awarded to the APNU+AFC and 56,627 or 30.5% to the PPP. The remaining votes were awarded to the smaller parties.

On June 23, he again presented a new report to GECOM where he dumped 155,000 votes which he said are invalid, to give the incumbent a victory.

The Court of Appeal in a ruling Thursday declared that no results other than that from the recount are valid and the Chief Elections Officer must do as he is told by the GECOM chair.

Even a case without merit and the court decides to entertain it is still time wasted. APNU was granted 24 hours stay, who knows what else may come up within 24 hours. 

@Totaram posted:

When did they say any such thing?  

It was scattered throughout their oral argument/ruling today.