GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The main opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) today welcomed the ruling of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) that threw out a ruling by the Court of Appeal with regards to the disputed March 2 regional and general elections.

“I hope President David Granger listened carefully to the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice… there is no excuse because he has heard the court make it clear the chief elections officer (Kevin Lowenfield) must act lawfully and they invalidated his fraudulent report,” Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said.

The five-member panel headed by President Justice Adrian Saunders said that the Court of Appeal in Georgetown had no jurisdiction to hear the matter that had been filed by private citizen Eslyn David.

The CCJ, the country’s highest court, last week heard the appeal filed by Jagdeo and Irfaan Ali, the PPP/C presidential candidate, seeking several reliefs, including an interpretation of the words ‘more votes are cast’ in Article 177(2)(b) of the Constitution of Guyana.

The Court of Appeal in its majority 2-1 decision late last month ordered that the words are to be interpreted as meaning ‘more valid votes are cast’. The court also ordered that the decision be stayed for three days. The applicants, who were added as respondents before the Court of Appeal claim that the decision was wrong for many reasons, including that the Court of Appeal did not have the jurisdiction to hear and determine the Notice of Motion.

Jagdeo told reporters after the ruling that he and the party had been “vindicated’ in its decision to appeal the ruling by the Court of Appeal.

He said it had set out “clear guidance” to be followed by Lowenfield and the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) in the move towards releasing the official results of the disputed poll.