IN less than a month, electors in the local government district of Lengua/Indian Walk will know for certain if they are to return to the polls.
On March 26, Justices of Appeal Charmaine Pemberton, Vasheist Kokaram and Carla Brown-Antoine will rule on the United National Congress’s (UNC) appeal of its election petition.
In January, Justice Marissa Robertson dismissed the election petition. She ruled the EBC acted correctly in rejecting a disputed special ballot because it did not have the returning officer’s initial, as required by the election rules.
The UNC filed the petition on August 21, 2023, after two recounts led to the PNM’s candidate Autly Granthume being announced the winner over the UNC’s Nicole Gopaul-Jones on election night, August 14, 2023.
Granthume initially received 1,430 votes compared to Gopaul-Jones’s 1,425. At the end of the first recount, each candidate received 1,428 votes.
However, the returning officer rejected a special ballot in favour of Gopaul-Jones – which would have broken the tie.
Gopaul-Jones challenged the rejection of the ballot, insisting it was valid and ought to have been counted, which would have led to her being returned as the councillor for the district.
The EBC maintained its reasoning for rejecting the ballot as required by election rules under the Representation of the People Act.
The EBC declared a fresh election for the district after the returning officer declared the election void.
As with all election petitions, if the petitioner is unsatisfied with the High Court’s decision, it can appeal only to the Court of Appeal, as the Privy Council has no jurisdiction over such electoral litigation.
On Tuesday, attorney Anand Ramlogan, SC, who represents the petitioner, urged the Appeal Court judges to be circumspect and cautious when scrutinising the election rules as an election court.
“Any ground that leads to the disenfranchisement of voters has to be strictly and narrowly construed.”
He said election law recognised there would be irregularities.
“But not every irregularity can lead to a disqualification of a ballot.
“Election rules are important. But does it lead to automatic disqualification of the ballot? No. A breach of an election rule doesn't lead to automatic disqualification of a ballot unless the law expressly provides for it,” Ramlogan argued.
He said the local election rules did not provide for disqualification for the absence of an official mark, signature or initials. He pointed to election rules in the United Kingdom which catered for such circumstances, saying the rules must expressly provide for it, as in the UK.
Ramlogan insisted the election rules provided a “curative procedure” for a returning officer to treat with a special ballot which did not have the initials of the returning officer for the special polling station.
“The court has to look at the statute (the Representation of the People Act) and look at the rights of the elector and enfranchisement of the voter.
“There is clear deliberate policy judgment by the P
