Guyana’s Chief Justice has dismissed an application to postpone the Local Government Elections.
Acting Chief Justice, Roxane George-Wiltshire, on Wednesday dismissed an application by the main opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) to postpone the June 12 elections saying that the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) did not breach the constitution with the establishment of new constituencies.
APNU Chief Scrutineer, Carol Smith-Joseph, had challenged the decision of GECOM to change 37 boundaries in 19 Local Authority Areas, arguing that the decision violated Article 72 of the Constitution, and as such, an order should also be granted prohibiting GECOM from holding LGE.
But in dismissing the application, the Acting Chief Justice said: “I have concluded that GECOM does not have to apply the criteria outlined in Article 72 (2) in deciding what electoral divisions to combine or subdivide in order to form constituencies within the Local Authority Area as established by the Ministerial Order”.
She said she based her decision on the Article 72 of the Constitution and Order No. 39 of 22 issued by the Minister of Local Government, Nigel Dharamlall.
The acting Chief Justice said that Article 72 is outside of GECOM’s mandate, and it is the Minister of Local Government, who must be guided by Article 72 in the establishment of Local Democratic Organs.
The High Court ruled that Article 72 does not speak to the establishment of constituencies and as she dismissed the application, the Acting Chief Justice said it was misleading and lacked evidence to support claims made.
“That is asking the court to engage in partisan politics and that cannot be countenanced… there is no evidence to support this ground… it amounted to an opinion,” Justice George-Wiltshire said.
On Tuesday, the Acting Chief Justice dismissed an application by Smith-Joseph who had challenged the voters’ list published by GECOM for the LGE.
The High Court ruled that she failed to provide hard and credible evidence that the voter’s list is flawed and could not be used to extract the separate voters list for the originally scheduled local government elections.
Also on Tuesday, the High Court dismissed applications by Attorney General Anil Nandlall and People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo to intervene in the move by Smith-George to cancel or postpone the LGE.
The acting Chief Justice said. “Neither of the parties, who seek to intervene, that is the Attorney General and Dr Jagdeo, while interested, will advance the case. Nothing in the affidavits indicated how they could assist the Court in addressing the issue, which is whether they have been breaches of Article 72 and Section 3 (1) (a) and (b) of the Local Authorities Elections Act.”
CMC/
