…to the PNC
Have you even seen someone picked up simultaneously by the seat of their pants and the scruff of their neck and thrown out bodily from an establishment? That’s a “bum’s rush” – and it ain’t pretty or dignified!! Well, that’s what happened to the PNC from an establishment that’s been pretty much their “home away from home” for the last year or so: the High Court!! Never in the history of our republic has one government (or Attorney General) spent so much on legal fees like the PNC!! The PPP’s still trying to clean up that squandermania!
This time – as your Eyewitness knows you know by now – they were ejected because one of the two Election Petitions they’d filed to overturn the elections was found to be FATALLY defective. When they’d filed on Sept 18, 2020, your Eyewitness had pointed out right then and there that they were signalling they had absolutely no confidence in their first petition (filed on Aug 31). It’s all well and good to have a back-up, but after the PNC had held the country at ransom for five months, insisting they had incontrovertible evidence that the PPP had stolen the elections, you just knew something wasn’t regula’!
Well, the PNC’s back to only having their first (shaky?) petition to be heard – by March, the first anniversary of their attempted heist. Maybe we might still get to see the “INCONTROVERTIBLE” evidence! Like your Eyewitness, maybe you’re curious as to why the Chief Justice threw them out on their ear on the second one? Some might say – like the PNC lawyers, such as their newly-minted Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde and his high-priced Trini counterpart Jeremie – that the defect was merely “technical” and not “substantive”.
But, as should’ve been known to these two gentlemen, in law, the devil is in the details, and the particular details they messed up in their petition revealed something fishy was definitely going on. It all had to do with the date they served notice on Granger, since he was a party to the action. This was supposed to have been done, according to the requisite statute, by Sept 18. Simple, no? But the affidavit they presented to the Court showed that Granger had signed on Sept 25. When this was pointed out at the preliminary hearing last year, Jeremy and Forde first said it was “no big thing”!!
Upbraided by the Court, they then claimed that Granger had actually been served on the 24th but had indicated the “25th”! As the CJ pointed out this time, the 24th was still beyond the statutory period! She didn’t spare their blushes, calling their explanations “preposterous”, “unmeritorious” and “contrived”!
Ouch!
…to the Aussies
There were many who were ready to read funeral rites for Test cricket after the stupendous success and growth of the T-20 version. But the Test match between India and Australia two nights ago proved that the venerable elongated form can produce more than enough drama to keep fans around the world glued to their TVs, and can pull all-nighters! And your Eyewitness isn’t even talking about the racial taunts hurled at the Indian players by the spectators.
The Indian team had been depleted not only by the absence of their charismatic captain Kohli, but their entire frontline bowling attack! Nine of the eleven players in the deciding last Test weren’t even picked for the first Test! They were facing an Aussie team at full strength – especially in the bowling department. No one gave the Indians much chance of winning – and most thought they’d go for the draw. But the young’uns in the team rose to the occasion, played their designated roles and won.
Hope our players were looking!
…for ego
The Chair of G77+China was just passed on to Guinea. Most of the world can’t even distinguish between Guyana and Guinea.
But the PNC spent over US$1million to have some washed-out crony strut around. What did Guyana get?
