An application that was filed by the opposition’s Chief Elections Scrutineer, Carol Joseph to block to the current voters’ list from being used during the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE) has been dismissed by Chief Justice (CJ) Roxane George-Wiltshire.
The Chief Justice in her ruling outlined that many unsubstantiated statements were provided to the court during the hearings. The CJ said the submissions made by the applicant were not enough to challenge the voters’ list published by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM).
“It does appear that by relying on unsubstantiated and inadmissible evidence, the applicant is inviting this court by a side-wind to impugn the OLE (Original List of Electors) that was utilized for the 2020 National and Regional Elections. The invitation is unequivocally rejected,” the Chief Justice said.
She continued, “The document has unsubstantiated jottings on it that speak to persons being deceased or not living in the area. This is inadmissible evidence that cannot be relied on by the court. Even if the evidence was admissible, it’s content was unreliable as there is no evidence of the source of the information mentioned in the jottings.”
The Chief Justice also said that based on the submissions, there was no breach of the Constitution when the voters’ list was compiled by the elections body. She noted too that the court could not determine whether the electoral body failed to provide a credible list for the upcoming elections on June 12.
The opposition had asked the High Court to block GECOM from using the existing voters list for upcoming Local Government Elections on the grounds that it was extracted from the list for general and regional elections, and does not consider residency of electors.
The application also called for a declaration that list is “null, void and of no legal effect.”
The Chief Justice effectively dismissed the matter given the grounds mentioned earlier.
