Opposition Leader files new application for recount
…as 4 political parties join injunction proceedings
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) as well as the representative of the party’s List of Candidates, along with private citizen, Reaz Holladar, has filed a court action for a recount of the results of the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
This new proceeding raises a number of issues connected to the electoral process and the elections results, specifically the manner in which the Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo conducted the tabulation exercise, his illegal declaration of the results and his denial of recounts requested by eight of the parties that contested the elections.
Speaking on this, PPP/C Presidential Candidate, Dr Irfaan Ali explained that the application is seeking to have the court direct a recount, citing the commitment of the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh and President David Granger’s own commitment in the aide-memoire signed by him and Jagdeo under the auspices of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which had brokered the recount.
However, that recounting process was blocked by an injunction obtained by APNU/AFC candidate, Ulita Moore, on Tuesday.
Attorney-at-Law Anil Nandlall told reporters on Friday that an application has been filed to have this new matter be joined with the injunction proceedings, since “the issues are related. They arise out of the same subject matter and they have great connection legally, pragmatically and politically…”
High Court Judge, Justice Franklyn Holder will be hearing that application to join the two cases on Monday at 13:00h.
Injunction
Meanwhile, at the hearing of the injunction on Friday, Justice Holder granted applications from several opposition political parties, including the PPP/C’s Jagdeo, to join the proceeding that is blocking GECOM from conducting the national recount that was supposed to be done earlier this week and be supervised by a high-level Caricom team.
The other parties added to the proceedings were A New and United Guyana (ANUG), Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) and The New Movement (TNM), the three parties that had joined their Lists of Candidates to contest the elections.
They were presented by Attorney-at-Law Timothy Jonas and Senior Counsel Ralph Ramkarran in court.
Jonas, who is the Chairman of ANUG, told reporters that the Judge dealt with housekeeping matters on Friday ahead of the hearing of the substantive case on Monday.
In addition to Jagdeo, an application was also made for Reeaz Holladar to be added to the proceedings as well. Holladar had successfully filed proceedings earlier this month to block RO Mingo from declaring the results of Region Four as well as against GECOM and its officials from declaring the 2020 elections results.
However, the request to have Holladar join this case was denied by Justice Holder.
Nandlall explained that this was refused on the ground that Jagdeo’s joiner of the proceedings cover the same issues that Holladar’s application sought to ventilate in court.
“The Judge felt that having Holladar and Jagdeo together would have been duplicating the proceedings because they seem to be canvassing the same interests,” he noted.
Nevertheless, the four added parties were granted leave to file their defence in the injunction proceedings by Monday. The lawyers for Moore will then have up to Wednesday to file their response. Thereafter, the court will hear submissions on the injunction.
