Contesting the challenge to President David Granger’s unilateral appointment of retired judge James Patterson as Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) Chairman, the state’s lawyers yesterday called for the entire application filed by PPP/C Member of Parliament Zulfikar Mustapha to be struck out, while arguing that he had no capacity to bring the action in the first place and therefore should not be heard.
Conversely, they argued that it is opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo who must appear before the court and have his voice heard, since the transaction for the selection of a Gecom Chair, as constitutionally stipulated, is between the president and opposition leader.
In legal submissions yesterday afternoon before acting Chief Justice Roxane George SC, Barbadian Queen’s Counsel (QCs) Ralph Thorne and Hal Gallop, who have been retained by the government to assist in fighting its case, strongly contended that whatever would be proffered by the applicant could only be seen as “hearsay evidence.”
