GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The Court of Appeal will resume hearing arguments on July 29 in the appeal filed by supporters of the opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity and the alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) against the decision of the High Court to dismiss an election petition challenging the results of the controversial March 2 regional and general elections last year.
Both Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall and Trinidad-based Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes told the three-member Appellate Court that it had no jurisdiction to hear the petitions.
The Notice of Appeal was filed on February 24, this year, by attorney Roysdale Forde on behalf of Monica Thomas and Brennan Joette Natasha Nurse.
The petitioners have asked the Court of Appeal to set aside the ruling of the acting Chief Justice, Roxane George, arguing that she erred on several grounds including that she misdirected herself when she applied the doctrine of strict compliance with service of affidavit in a timely manner.
But both Nandlall, and Mendes told the Court of Chancellor Yonnette Cummings-Edwards and Justices Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory, that in relation to the election petition number 99 they should uphold a January 18, 2021 decision by Chief Justice George who also dismissed the petition.
They argued that since the petition was dismissed it cannot be appealed and the Court would be acting outside of its jurisdiction should it entertain the petition.
“There could be no appeal… because the court disposed of the petition it cannot be appealed,” Mendes told the Appeal Court.
He said that the dismissal could only be appealed if the Order by the Chief Justice was final to which he disagreed, saying it was not, since she never dealt with the substantive content of the petition.
The acting Chief Justice in her January 18 ruling agreed to go ahead with one of the two petitions (88/P) while dismissing petition #99 because former president, David Granger, was not served within the required five-day timeline to do so.
She has since also dismissed petition #88.
Forde is expected to continue making his arguments for the Court of Appeal to dismiss the High Court ruling on July 29.
In their Notice of Appeal, the opposition supporters noted that an error was made when the Acting Chief Justice failed to consider the overriding objective of the petition in making her decision on the content of the affidavit of service.
The ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) was declared winner of the elections in August after recounts and court battles.
