NDP petitions hearing adjourned yet again

Shouts of “injustice” and “wickedness” were heard last Friday outside the High Court, after the hearing of two election petitions filed by the New Democratic Party (NDP) was adjourned yet again.

Counsel for the respondents Grahame Bollers told SEARCHLIGHT that the hearing of the petitions was postponed to June 16, because the notices of the petitions were not served on the lawyers, as required{{more}} by law.

“These provisions are mandatory and if they are not done, then the petition cannot be heard.”

Bollers, who is counsel for the elections officials named in the NDP petitions, pointed out that the notices should also have been published in the newspaper and in the government Gazette, prior to the case being heard.

“All that it means is my clients, the respondents, who lawfully and validly won the election in Central Leeward and North Windward, would have to wait until the 16th of June for justice,” Bollers said.

He is confident that when the petitions are heard on June 16, they would be struck out.

Vice-president of the New Democratic Party (NDP) St Clair Leacock, when asked, said: “I am not going to be speculating that it is a clerical error; at best, it has to be administrative incompetence…it can’t be clerical error.”

After the adjournment was given, supporters of the NDP, who had assembled outside of the courthouse, expressed their anger that the case had to be put off again.

One woman was heard yelling “they too thief”, while many speculated that this was a strategy by the Government to delay the case.

The cries of protest outside the courthouse became so loud that Rosalin Allen, one of the protestors, was called before the court.

After leaving the court room, she told reporters that she was told that if she persists with the protesting outside of the court, she would be held in contempt of court.

Leader of the Opposition Arnhim Eustace was present; however, he declined to make a comment.

The election petitions were filed in January 2016 by Benjamin Exeter and Lauron Baptiste, two candidates who contested the December 2015 general elections for the NDP. Exeter and Baptiste are seeking to have the elections in Central Leeward and North Windward respectively declared null and void, because of irregularities, which they claim affected the “quality” of the elections. Both men lost the elections in those constituencies by 313 and 323 votes to Louis Straker and Montgomery Daniel, respectively.(CM)