Any attempt to approach the CCJ to overturn the decision made by the Court of Appeal on Monday regarding the Eslyn David vs. Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) will not be heard. This is according to the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams.
“Article 177 clearly states that any decision made by the Appeal Court is final and equally, the CCJ Act Chapter 3:07, there is a provision that speaks to the Caribbean Court of Justice will not exercise jurisdiction or hear any matter from our Court of Appeal which is stated to be final,” said Minister Williams during an interview with the Guyana Chronicle.
The Court of Appeal on Monday rejected the submissions of GECOM and other political parties that the court did have jurisdiction to hear the matter. However, the court ruled that it has jurisdiction and in a majority decision, Appeal Court Judges Brassington Reynolds and Dawn Gregory determined that the words “more votes cast” in Article 177 (2) (b) of the Constitution mean “more valid and credible votes cast.”
GECOM has to review the report submitted by the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowebfield, which must contain “valid votes” and the review by the commission, before a declaration of results be made.
“That is where he (CEO) applies the credibility test to the numbers and in doing so, he has shown already in his first report that the numbers were substantially reduced because of irregularities, discrepancies and anomalies.”
The CEO was preparing to submit his report on Thursday, June 18 as ordered by GECOM Chair Justice (Ret’d) Claudette Singh, when he and Chair were served with a Notice of Motion filed by private citizen Eslyn David which also blocked the submission believed to have contained fraudulent votes for declaration.
Attorney General noted that the Chair has never departed from the court’s decisions and expects that she will do the same in this instance.
