High Court throws out applications to block testimonies from elections COI

Dec 09, 2022 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Kaieteur News – Justice Damone Younge has dismissed an application by three staffers of the Guyana Elections Commission seeking to block a summons by the Commissioner of Inquiry (COI) into the 2022 elections for them to appear before the panel.

The application was filed by Denise Babb-Cummings, Sheferen February and Michelle Miller  employees of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) seeking, among other things, a permanent injunction to prevent the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the March 2020 General and Regional Elections from compelling them to give evidence.

The GECOM employees had declined to testify and invoked their right to remain when they appeared before the commission on earlier this week.

Justice Damone Younge

Denying all of the orders prayed for, and dismissing the Notice of Application by Babb-Cummings, February and Miller, Justice Younge ruled inter alia that the COI into the March 2020 General and Regional Elections is indeed a part of the State pursuant to section 2 of the COI Act.

As such, she determined the injunctive relief claimed against the Attorney General and the COI into the March 2020 General and Regional Election is refused. In any case, the case raised in the Fixed Date Application (FDA) is not appropriate for the grant of a conservatory order, the judge ruled.

Babb-Cummings, February and Miller have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the March 2020 Elections, and, on 2nd December 2022, were summoned to give evidence to the COI established by President Irfaan Ali into the March 2022 Elections.

In a FDA filed on the 5th December 2022 by Attorney, Eusi Anderson, Attorney-at-Law, against the Attorney General (the first named Respondent); and the COI established by President Irfaan Ali into the March 2020 Elections (the second named Respondent), Babb-Cummings, February and Miller sought several declaratory, and other orders, including a permanent injunction preventing the COI from compelling the attendance of anyone charged with a criminal offence related to March 2020 Elections; and damages in excess of GY$50 million, each, for the breach of the Applicants’ constitutional rights to due process, a fair trial, and the State’s willful exposure of them to self-incriminatory testimony under risk of compulsion and contempt.

In response to the Notice of Application, the  State through the Office of the Attorney General,  Anil Nandlall SC submitted that while the High Court is vested with power to grant an injunction under section 23(1) of the High Court Act, Chapter 3:02of the Laws of Guyana, sections 16 (6) and 16 (8) of the State Liability and Proceedings Act, Chapter 6:05 of the Laws of Guyana, expressly, and specifically prohibits the High Court from granting prohibitory or mandatory injunctions against the Respondents in the form of injunctive/coercive orders.

The Respondents further submitted that the COI into the 2020 General and Regional Elections is a State entity, given that it was established by the President exercising constitutionally granted supreme executive authority, and having activated section 2 of the under the Commissions of Inquiry Act Cap 19:03, Laws of Guyana.  That section provides that “The President [who] may issue a Commission appointing one or more Commissioners and authorising such Commissioner or Commissioners to inquire into any matter in which an inquiry would, in the opinion of the President, be for the public welfare.”