The Court of Appeal has rejected an appeal from the UNC challenging the decision of a High Court judge to dismiss one of its six election petitions due to an administrative error.
Delivering a majority ruling at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Appeal Court Judge Judith Jones ruled that Justice Mira Dean-Armorer was correct which she dismissed the UNC’s petition for the La Horquetta/Talparo constituency after the PNM claimed that the UNC served the documents after the deadline prescribed in the Representation of the People’s Act had expired.
Archie and Jones stated that the timeline set in the legislation had to be strictly adhered to by those seeking to invoke it. The third member of the panel, Appellate judge Rajendra Narine, disagreed with his colleagues and presented a dissenting judgment.
The UNC was granted leave to pursue its petitions challenging the Election and Boundaries Commission to extend last September’s election by one hour due to heavy rain on September 18, last year. The following day the opposition party’s lawyers delivered its petitions to the Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court.
However, because it was done on a Saturday the documents were only officially stamped by judiciary staff two days later. The appeal centred around when the five-day limit for serving the petitions began. The UNC’s lawyer, former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, SC, had claimed that it only began when the documents were officially filed on the next working day.
Douglas Mendes, SC, who represented the PNM, disagreed as he contended that it began when the documents were delivered to the assistant registrar. "In the interpretation of election petitions, the meeting of deadlines is a prerequisite under the legislation. You must meet your deadlines.
You miss it by the thinnest of margins and you’re out of court," Mendes had submitted to the court, which agreed in its decision. As part of its ruling, the appeal court ordered the UNC to pay two-thirds of the PNM’s legal costs for challenging the faulty petition before it and Dean-Armorer.
ABOUT THE CASE
In its petitions, the Opposition is claiming that the EBC’s returning officers acted illegally when they followed the EBC’s directive to extend the poll as the commission did not have the power to adjust the 6 am to 6 pm time period for elections. It contends its defeat in the constituencies was marginally affected by the EBC’s decision to extend the polling hours.
In light of the court ruling on the La Horquetta/Talparo constituency, the other marginal constituencies that continue to be challenged are Toco/Sangre Grande, Tunapuna, St Joseph, San Fernando West and Moruga/Tableland. The PNM and the EBC had initially challenged Dean-Armorer’s decision to grant the UNC leave to pursue the petitions but her decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal. Besides the petitions, Dean-Armorer has also been assigned two cases in which three private citizens are challenging the EBC’s decision.
Social activist Ravi Balgobin Maharaj has filed a judicial review seeking the court’s clarification on whether the EBC had the constitutional power to make the decision. Irwin Lyne and Melissa Sylvan are claiming that the EBC breached the constitutional rights of Tobagonians by not allowing them an extension.
Both cases have been deferred as they would be directly affected by the outcome of Dean-Armorer’s decision on the petitions. The UNC is also being represented by Timothy Straker, QC; Gerald Ramdeen; Wayne Sturge; and Kent Samlal.
The PNM’s legal team includes John Jeremie, Michael Quamina, Kerwyn Garcia, Terrence Bharath and Celeste Jules. Senior Counsel Russell Martineau and Deborah Peake are leading the EBC’s legal team.