A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Member of Parliament and Shadow Attorney General Rossdale Forde, SC, May 17, 2022, announced that a date has been set for the commencement of hearings at the Caribbean Court of Election’s Petition 99.
Forde was at the time fielding questions from the press at the People’s National Congress Reform’s weekly press conference held at Congress Place Sophia. He related that the case management hearing for Petition 99 will be held on May 31, 2022.
The Guyana Court of Appeal in December last year ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear an appeal against a ruling of the High Court to dismiss Petition 99 based on procedural impropriety.
Election Petition 99 was filed by Brennan Nurse and Monica Thomas, on behalf of the APNU+AFC who are asking the court to vitiate the results of the March 2020 General and Regional Elections due to pervasive fraud.
Then Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon vowed to pursue Petitions 99 and 88 with vigour. “I wish to assure all our supporters, and in fact, all Guyanese and persons who have a deep interest in this matter, that we will pursue our elections petitions (both of them) and particular, number 88. We will pursue that with unrelenting vigour, and we shall appeal the decision of the Chief Justice with regards to Petition 99, which she ruled was not permissible. We do not agree with her ruling here, and so, as the law provides, we will appeal that decision.”
Harmon had stated that both petitions are “sound and credible in law”, and “must be heard by the court”. Following that successful appeal by Senior Counsel Forde and team the Attorney representing the PPP Douglas Mendes, petitioned the court to have the decision stayed for two weeks while they decide whether to appeal the ruling at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). That request was granted by Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards.
Petition 99 was filed on September 15, 2020, and was dismissed on January 18 by Chief Justice Roxane George, SC, on a procedural error, namely, failure to effect service on the second-named respondent, former President David Granger within a specific time frame.
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