A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament, Roysdale Forde, says that the resolution of the first elections petition filed challenging the March 2 General and Regional Elections declaration, can be done within two to three months, with the second petition likely to take six to eight months.
The Senior Counsel, acknowledging that the last elections petition took a little over three years to be resolved, said that he is confident that this will not be the fate of the two challenges brought by the APNU+AFC.
He explained that the formulation of APNU+AFC elections petition arguments is not being done from scratch, since all the arguments relating to the validity of the March 2 Elections have already been ventilated and documented during post-elections litigation. That information will now be taken to the court within the context of an elections petition. Forde says that he foresees no protracted delay in the court resolving these issues.
The first elections petition seeks to ascertain, inter alia, the validity of Order 60; the order that operationalized the Recount Process. The second petition seeks to challenge the decision made by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chairperson, Justice (retired) Claudette Singh to refuse the Chief Elections Officer (CEO), Keith Lowenfield’s advice and guidance that the elections were saw instances of fraud.
In summation, Forde said that the party expects the court to determine and declare: that the CEO is not entitled to base his Report required by Section 96 of the Representation of the People Act on data generated from the Recount purported to be carried out under Order No. 60 of 2020; that the Election Report based on Certificates of District Tabulation from the National Recount is illegal, null and void; and finally, that declaration of the President by the Chairman of GECOM based on the Election Report which was premised on Certificates of District Tabulation from the National Recount is illegal, null and void as these documents were “fabricated to facilitate the unconstitutional Recount”.
Forde’s comments come two days after the APNU+AFC received confirmation from the Chief Justice that a case management conference will be conducted on October 22.
