Nicole Dyer-Griffith has lost her bid to contest the election for the post of political leader of the Congress of the People with her candidacy having been deemed invalid.
But she said she remains committed to the party and will be ready when the election is next called after the court ordered that the election carded for Sunday be postponed.
It is the second time in two months that the party’s election would be postponed. The election for a political leader was originally scheduled for July 9 and was postponed to this Sunday. But those elections are not off.
Justice Ricky Rahim sitting in the San Fernando High Court ordered that Sunday’s election be postponed and that the National Executive of the party meet to consider the membership of persons who applied. He ruled that given the resignations of the members of the elections committee the leadership election had to be postponed to a date to be fixed.
Chairman of the Congress of the People Jamieson Bahadur said if Dyer-Griffith wants to re-apply for membership of the party she will have to write to him and he will take the matter to the national executive.
The party’s constitution, he said, states that if someone leaves the party and goes to another party and wants to return they need to write the chairman and the political leader and the letter will be discussed by the national executive, who will interview the person and then take a decision on the application.
This, he said, did not happen in the case of Dyer-Griffith.
Dyer-Griffith had resigned from the COP and formed another party Alliance of Independents. But returned and was named as one of three female candidates to contest the post of political leader. The other two women are former deputy political leader Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan and Sharon Gopaul-McNicol.
COP member Kirk Francis filed an application to the court seeking an injunction to prevent Dyer-Griffith from voting and being a candidate, and to prevent 34 other people from voting in the election.
Dyer-Griffith said while it was not the outcome that they would have wanted “the court acted and had to rule and we have to abide by it. Sometimes hurdles come in your way and you just have to look at the bigger picture and move on.”
She said, “we continue moving forward and will continue working in the best interest of the Congress of the People. I am committed to the party and to persons who are working in the best interest of the organisation.”
Bahadur said with the resignations of the political leader Dr Anirudh Mahabir and general secretary Clyde Weatherhead, he is now in charge of the party and has called an emergency meeting of the National Executive for 5 pm today to bring the executive up to speed on the court ruling.