Judge grants APNU-favoured injunction to block Caricom supervised recount

With the national recount still to commence, High Court judge, Justice Franklyn Holder, this afternoon granted an injunction, blocking the process from moving forward.

The application was filed by a private citizen and named the Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission, (ret’d) Justice Claudette Singh, and Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, as respondents.

The judge has ordered the GECOM officers from setting aside or varying the declaration of the 10 Returning Officers (RO) until the hearing and determination of the proceedings.

Justice Franklyn Holder

An injunction was also sought, “restraining the Elections Commission from permitting or authorizing any actions pursuant to the agreement between the President of Guyana and the Leader of the Opposition until the hearing and determination of this action…”

Only this morning, President David Granger and Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo signed the agreement for the national recount to be conducted and supervised by an independent high-level CARICOM team.

The recounting was expected to start at 17:00h today.  The hearing of the injunction has been fixed for Friday, March 20, 2020.

According to Attorney-at-law, Sanjeev Datadin, any interested party can file an action to have these orders discharged or thrown out.