High Court dismisses PPP’s challenge to AFC nominators in Corentyne NDC

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 October 2018, 16:41 by Denis Chabrol

The High Court on Tuesday dismissed a case by the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) that had sought to have the names of 50 backers of an Alliance For Change (AFC) candidate for Bloemfield /Whim Neighbourhood Democratic Council be removed from the records of the Guyana Elections Commission.

High Court Judge, Navindra Singh, after ordering an investigation and reading the police report, said there was no evidence of “fraud, trickery or threat” to force any of the nominators to sign as backers for AFC candidates.

As a result, Justice Singh dismissed the case because he said there was no basis to ask the Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield to strike out the names of the backers.

Shafraz Beekham, of Letter Kenny Village, Corentyne, on behalf of himself and 49 others, had sought to convince the court that they had been “misled/deceived” by an AFC representative into signing as a “nominator/supporter” of candidate, Orlando Christopher Persaud.

Prior to Tuesday’s ruling, AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan had vehemently denied that his party representatives had engaged in any skulduggery to get endorsements for Persaud.

Guyanese are set to go to the polls on November 12, 2018 to elect representatives in several neighbourhood and town councils across the country.

The ballot papers and other related election material have been already printed in Canada and are set to be shipped to Guyana.