Court gives Persaud 14 days to clarify elections petition
-after APNU+AFC request
The opposition PPP/C’s Ganga Persaud has 14 days to file an affidavit in answer to a summons from the representative of the APNU+AFC candidates’ list Harold Lutchman seeking “further and better particulars” from the elections petition he has filed challenging the results of the May 11th polls.
Meanwhile, Lutchman would be given seven days in which to file a reply.
The summons was filed last week.
The case is being heard inchambers by acting Chief Justice Ian Chang and will be called again on August 24 at 1PM, although no date has been fixed for the substantive hearing of the petition.
Persaud wants the court to order fresh elections as a form of redress.
The opposition party’s position since the May 11th general elections is that it has been robbed of votes through a carefully planned rigging process on the part of the APNU+ AFC coalition. Local and international observers have declared the polls free and fair.
Persaud described himself in the court document as an election agent and PPP/C candidate in the elections. The respondents were listed as Chief Election Officer ( CEO) Keith Lowenfield; Donald Ramotar, representative of the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic ( PPP/ C) List of Candidates; Lutchman, representative of the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) List of Candidates; Marissa Nadir, representative of The United Force (TUF) List of Candidates; Mark Benschop, representative of the Independent Party (IP) List of Candidates; Saphier HussainSubedar, representative of the National Independent Party (NIP) List of Candidates; Vishnu Bandhu, representative of the United Republican Party (URP) List of Candidates; Gerald Perreira, representative of the Organisation for the Victory of the People ( OVP) list of Candidates; and Leon Saul, representative of the Healing The Nation Theocracy Party (HTNTP) List of Candidates.
In the petition, Persaud called on the court to declare the entire elections process flawed, and containing many procedural errors and so many instances of fraudulent and/ or suspicions actions that “the results that have been derived from the process cannot be credibly deemed to represent accurately the will of the electorate.”
He also asked the court to order a recount of all ballots cast in the elections.
Further, Persaud said that he would like the court to determine and declare that the number of valid votes cast differs from the number of votes upon which seats in the National Assembly were allocated, and further that the Guyana Elections Commission be directed to review the lists and to, accordingly, reallocate such seats in accordance with Section 97 of the Representation of the People Act.
Lastly he asked that the court grant “such redress in conformity with the National Assembly ( Validity of Elections) Act, Chapter 1:04, as may be just, appropriate and necessary, including, but not limited to, ordering fresh elections to be held in the whole or part, for the purpose of rectifying the said results; and that the Court give such incidental, ancillary and supplementary direction as the Court may deem fit, including, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the reallocation of the seats in the National Assembly.”