GECOM can proceed with recount but, must supervise – Court of Appeal

…orders to be issued today

The Appeals Court on Sunday refused to grant the orders sought by lawyers for A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) candidate Ulita Moore, clearing the way for the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) to go forward with its recount.

Moore was appealing the Full Court’s decision to throw out the High Court injunction against the recount, which was granted by Justice Franklyn Holder. Moore and her lawyers were seeking an order from the Appeals Court setting aside the Full Court’s ruling.

They were also seeking an order reinstating Judge Holder’s previous ruling which had halted

the recount GECOM was about to conduct. In addition, they were seeking costs. Appeal Court Judges Dawn Gregory, Rishi Persaud and Brassington Reynolds, who oversaw Sunday’s matter, refused to reinstate those injunctions as sought by Moore through her lawyers.
However, Judges Reynolds and Gregory expressed the view that the Caribbean Community (Caricom) could not supervise the process as this arrangement would impinge on GECOM’s responsibilities.
The court also ruled that indeed, GECOM’s decision to have Caricom oversee the process is subject to review from the High Court. However, the court said that the matter is not being sent back to the High Court in the interest

of time and expediency. In addition, it was communicated that consequential orders will be issued sometime today.

No usurpation

In an interview with the media afterwards, former Attorney General Anil Nandlall, who represents Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, expressed the view that they never argued that Caricom would usurp GECOM’s role. Rather, it was always expected that the arrangement would be a collaboration. He made it clear that GECOM now has a clear path to conduct a recount.

“Importantly, the recount has not been stopped by the court. So, the recount is expected to proceed. The injunctions that

were granted by Justice Holder, preventing the recount from taking place, were not resurrected by this court,” Nandlall said.
“The matter is also not going back to Justice Holder for his consideration. So, the matter has ended here. And the only point the court made is that GECOM must be in charge of the recount and must not cede that responsibility to any other agency. It doesn’t mean GECOM cannot act in collaboration with other agencies. It doesn’t mean that observers cannot be present.”
“The court ruled that that decision, being in charge of the process, is one that is reviewable by the High Court. So far as GECOM, they interpreted the arrangement between GECOM and Caricom as Caricom supervising the recount and GECOM playing a secondary role.”
“Of course, we disagree with that interpretation. That was not the arrangement. The recount was always going to be conducted by GECOM, but observed by Caricom playing a less than active role. That was the arrangement. And that will still be the arrangement, I hope, when GECOM decides to begin the recount.”

Declarations
As of March 8, GECOM Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield had prepared a final report based on the declarations made by the 10 Returning Officers (ROs), including Clairmont Mingo’s controversial declaration.
Chief Justice (ag) Roxane George, through a ruling, then invalidated Mingo’s declaration. However, a second declaration was made by Mingo which again lacked transparency. A few days ago, Government-aligned GECOM Commissioner Vincent Alexander unsuccessfully tried to move a motion to have GECOM consider the final report with that second less than credible declaration.
According to Nandlall, GECOM has already discarded the declarations made by the ten Returning Officers and has decided to conduct a recount. He noted that all that is left is for the Commission to determine the logistics of the recount.
“There was a motion moved by Vincent Alexander for that report of Lowenfield, which contains the declaration made by Mingo, to be considered by the Commission. That motion was not passed.”

“So, we have passed that stage. So, there is no issue now about Mingo’s declaration of Lowenfield report. All those issues are behind us. We’re now at a position of proceeding with the recount and what are going to be the rules to be used to conduct the recount.”
Nandlall laid out his expectation for the recount, which is for it to be done in accordance with law, transparency and fairness. He said that once this is done, all the political parties will be duty-bound to accept the outcome.

Consequential orders
Meanwhile, Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, who represents Moore, could not say what their next step will be. He noted that this will be determined based on the consequential orders granted by the Appeals Court and as such, he related that they are in communication with the court.
“Because I believe it is necessary for us to understand what are the consequential orders that will be granted. Bearing in mind this is a partial appeal that has been allowed and what exactly is the ruling of the court.”
“Because in one interpretation it could be found that there are two decisions in our favour by Justices Gregory and Reynolds, which will have to be operationalised. So, we have asked the court for an opportunity to consider what actually the court has ordered. But as far as it stands, the court has ruled that the [Caricom supervision] agreement is unconstitutional,” Forde said.