Attorney-at- Law, Darren Wade, who contested for the Presidency of the Guyana Bar Association, but lost his bid to Attorney Arudranauth Gossai, has indicated that he plans to challenge the results of Friday’s elections, complaining that several rules of the association were breached.

Mr. Wade, told News Source that from the beginning, the process started off on the wrong footing when Attorney-at Law Sanjeev Datadin, moved to have the Association’s rules suspended prior to the voting.

In a statement over the weekend, the Guyana Bar Association said its 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was held by Zoom, recorded the highest membership attendance in the Association’s history.

But Mr. Wade is contending that many of the lawyers who voted are lawyers employed by the Government and are not in private practice, which is against the Association’s rules.

He quoted Section 3 of the GBA’s rules that stated that “all attorneys-at-law engaged in private practice at the bar shall be eligible for membership in the association” and “all other attorneys-at-law shall be entitled to Associate status in the Association which shall be limited to participation in all educational and social activities of the Association.”

“The first thing that they did was an application from Sanjeev Datadin to suspend the rules. On the issue of the voters list I have been sending out emails since last week asking for this information and it was never made available” Wade noted.

Wade said he is unaware of both the number of persons who voted in the elections and the number of votes each candidate received, as the results were announced in a percentage average.

He said that was the first time that the meeting and voting were conducted in such a manner.

Although Wade could not say how many people were eligible to vote, he said he was confident he had the numbers.

The Bar Association said Mr.Gossai, who previously served as Second Vice-President on the last Council, will now assume the Presidency of the Association.

Former President Kamal Ramkarran was elected First Vice-President, while Teni Housty was elected Second Vice-President.

Yashmini Singh was re-elected Secretary, Samuel Glasgow was elected Treasurer, and Mohanie Anganoo was elected Assistant Secretary.

Also elected to serve on the Bar Council were Senior Counsel Robin Stoby and Jamela Ali, along with Horatio Edmondson, Rea Harris, Chevy Devonish and Ron Motilall.

The election process was overseen by Returning Officer Rajendra Jaigobin with the entire process conducted over zoom.

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