The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) sitting in Trinidad and Tobago has dismissed the UWP’s application to appeal the ruling of the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in a 2019 election petition case. The UWP asked for special leave to appeal the election case involving Glenro Cuffy and others versus Melissa Skerrit and others.
In this third legal battle lost by the main opposition party in Dominica, the UWP contended that they lost 18-3 in favour of the DLP in the 2019 general elections because of election malpractices in 10 constituencies which included St. Joseph, Mahaut, Morne Jaune, La Plaine, Castle Bruce, Salybia, Roseau Valley, Roseau Central, Roseau South, and Wesley.
When the case came up for hearing in October 2020, Justice Raulston Glasgow of the Court of Appeal struck out the case for lack of merit and awarded $5,000 against the petitioners. Not happy with the decision, the UWP argued that the appeal court had no authority to hear the case and cited Sections 40(6) and (7) of the constitution as their defence. They stated that Justice Glasgow’s ruling was not final because he had not reached the stage where he ought to dismiss the petition.
The UWP took their case to the CCJ to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal. Ultimately, CCJ President Justice Adrian Saunders agreed that trial judge Glasgow truly did not reach the stage for dismissing the petitioners’ claims but dismissed their case on procedural grounds. He however established that Glasglow accorded the UWP fair hearing even though he dismissed the case at an intermediate stage, and that the Court of Appeal had jurisdiction to entertain the case.
The CCJ turned down the request of the UWP to obtain special leave to appeal the ruling of the Court of Appeal, meaning the earlier decision of Glasgow stands. The CCJ did not award any costs against the opposition party so as not to discourage future challenges to deficient electoral processes. Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan said that on the strength of the new CCJ ruling, election petitions filed by the opposition against the ruling party in 2005, 2009, and 2019 general elections are now entirely dismissed.
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