Decision to appeal will be political – Sir James

Should the petitioners lose their case in the Election Petitions matter, the decision to appeal will be a political one.

So says former prime minister and former president of the New Democratic Party (NDP) Sir James Mitchell, who was responding to questions on BOOM FM last week, about the recently concluded matter.

Ben Exeter and Lauron Baptiste, two candidates of the NDP filed election petitions challenging the results in Central Leeward and North Windward respectively in the 2015 general elections, with a view to having the results in those constituencies declared void.

After a delay of almost three years, the matter was heard in the High Court last month and a decision is scheduled to be delivered on March 21.

And should the judgment return a loss for the petitioners, Mitchell said that “it’s a political decision to appeal, not a legal one”.

“If you lose, what is the situation with regard to the public? The public again will say, if NDP loses, they’re maintaining their losing streak. They lose four elections under [Arnhim] Eustace and they lose the petition and that affects the image of the party,” he said. “You can get the idea that you’re struggling and tell the people you’re working very hard, but if you go to appeal and you lose, you are enforcing your image as a loser before your general election around the corner.”

The former NDP leader said that he has had no formal discussion with the executive of the party and what he was saying was not on behalf of the party.

He added that while he wishes the party well, he would not have taken certain decisions with regard to the petitions.

“The decision I would have taken, six months after the election is not the decision I would take today, because if the result had come out within six months, it is four and a half more years to go before a general election but now, its a year and some months,” he said.

Mitchell said that irregularities in the electoral process were exposed during the trial, but questioned whether the “misdemeanours” were adequate enough to convince the judge that it affected election results.

The former prime minister further said that whether the NDP won or lost the case, the decision for a bi-election or general election rests solely in the hands of the current prime minister, Ralph Gonsalves.

And he called for the public to be understanding of that process, which is outlined in the Constitution of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

“The judge cannot order a bi-election. The judge could only give judgement of the petition before him about irregularities. But the next question is, how will the judge interpret these irregularities. And we have gone through several judges in this exercise. And we have to accept the principles of justice in our democracy,” he said.

Mitchell added that he “suffered and I have had to defeat nine judges in the Caribbean to get justice. I defeated nine and I lost about $500,000, so I am very careful with my opinion about the justice system, but we have got to assume that the justice system works because whether we like it or not, it is the decision of the judge whether NDP win or ULP lose so that’s a process we have to respect”.
The former politician said that what really matters is the judgment of the public as this is what determines the mood going into a general election.

He further said that it was critical for the NDP to “study your enemy”; Gonsalves and the Unity Labour Party (ULP).

“Don’t just say they worthless and thief and this and that. How do you deal with them? How do you deal with the situation of elections? And I would say first of all, from my experience, I know what went through my mind when I chose the date of the election and the question is, what is going through Ralph Gonsalves’ mind now. That’s the key thing,” Mitchell said.