Opposition Heads to Supreme Court after Judge Fails to Stop Elections

The opposition has headed to the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) in St. Lucia after Dominica High Court Judge Bernie Stephenson said her court lacked the jurisdiction to hear their case. The opposition’s legal team, led by Cara Shillingford, wants the court to halt the December 6 general elections from holding till any other time in 2020 after election reforms have been implemented. Judge Stephenson said the High Court cannot grant such an injunction.

“This court cannot intrude on the elections once the writ has been issued by the President,” Judge Stephenson said. “I understand that the applicants may have legitimate concerns but…this court has no jurisdiction to grant the reliefs sought.”

Lennox Lawrence, attorney for the respondents, said the opposition ought to know that “this is not a fundamental rights issue and once the election writ was issued by the President, the court has no jurisdiction on the matter.”

Lawrence reiterated the opinion of Judge Stephenson that the opposition can only file a petition after the elections have held since the President of the country had issued a writ for the elections to hold. “This challenge must be done after the election via an election petition,” he said.

Others in his legal team said agree that judicial precedence provide that a challenge to the elections can only be brought to an elections court with a special jurisdiction established under Section 40 of the constitution after the election has held. They said doing otherwise will be forcing the court to speculate that the results of the coming election will be unfair, and that in itself is illegal.

“Therefore, they have to wait and the alternative remedy is election petition and they have 21 days after the election to so do…once the President issues the writ the elections must be held,” Heather Felix-Evans, one of the lawyers stated.

But Cara Shillingford contends that the court has the jurisdiction to grant an injunction to postpone the elections because “this is not an application that is common. There are authorities (Canadian) granting injunctions. The fact that it has never been made in Dominica or this jurisdiction, does not say it can’t be granted.” She said it is the duty of the law court to interpret the law and the constitution which give support to their petition to have the election postponed until electoral reforms are implemented.

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