The Guyana Court of Appeal has ruled that an election petition by the opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC), could be heard despite objections by the ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic) that it had been filed too late.
Senior counsel Roysdale Forde had filed a motion seeking an early date for case management and hearing to determine the appeal, but Trinidad-based senior counsel Douglas Mendes said the petitioners should take responsibility for the delay in hearing the appeal for election petition (88/20-P) which was dismissed by the High Court in April 2021.
But Forde said Monday that the documents necessary for a record of appeal were still at the High Court and not with the Court of Appeal. He said also the petitioners have suffered substantial prejudice since the full written decision of acting Chief Justice Roxane George is yet to be prepared.
“There is no failure on the appellant’s behalf in relation to keeping their obligations with the rules of the court,” Forde said, adding that the fault lies with the system.
Mendes, who is representing Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo as the general secretary of the ruling party, argued that the petitioners had every opportunity to file the motion before now and in fact, the motion to expedite the appeal could have been filed along with the appeal.
“This issue now arises because the appellant did nothing until the 30th of August 2022 to progress the appeal. It took those 19 months to approach the court,” Mendes said, telling the court that Forde was blaming everyone except the appellants themselves for the position in which they find themselves.
Mendes said the absence of a written judgment from the acting chief justice is of no consequence because there is a transcript of the detailed oral judgment.
“That document is available,” he added.
But the three-member Appeal Court, headed by Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings and including Justices Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud, dismissed Mendes’ arguments and ruled the appeal should be heard.
“A party or an applicant should not be turned away from the seat of justice given the nature of this matter and, therefore, in the interest of justice we will grant the application, as filed or sought by Mr. Forde,” Justice Cummings said.
The Court of Appeal has set November 1, 2022 for the status of the records including the full judgment by Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire. It also gave Forde seven days from October 3 to serve the notice of appeal on the other parties.
CMC/
