Opposition Leader Lennox Linton has defended his party’s decision to bring the 2019 election petition matter before the highest municipal court in the region, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
According to Linton, the matter before the court by the United Workers Party (UWP) is part of their responsibility in upholding “fairness, justice and to ensure that it is the people who have control over their electoral system not politicians.”
Linton’s statement comes in the wake of a CCJ judgment against an earlier ruling of High Court Judge Raulston Glasgow, upheld by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal (May 2021), that the High Court had no jurisdiction to hear an election petition matter.
The CCJ, in handing down an opposing view, ruled that the matter will be heard on February 23, 2022.
The matter surfaced following the December 2019 general elections in Dominica, in which the Dominica Labour Party (DLP)emerged victorious.
The following year, January 2020, the UWP filed election petitions alleging several irregularities in the election process and sought to have the court overturn the results in St. Joseph, Mahaut, Morne Jaune, La Plaine, Castle Bruce, Salybia, Roseau Valley, Roseau Central, Roseau South, and Wesley constituencies.
The government, in turn, filed applications to strike out the petitions on the basis, inter alia, that the petitions did not disclose causes of action against them and were abusing the process of the court.
Following multiple recusals by Judges presiding over the matter, the application to strike out the matter before trial was heard and granted by Justice Glasgow in October 2020.
In his ruling, Glasgow said the election petitions were struck out on the basis that the petitions lacked the necessary details or specificity to disclose causes of action against any of the respondents.
The High Court Judge also awarded costs to the respondents in the sum of $5,000 stating that the complaints could have been presented under a single or at the most, two petitions and deemed the ten, a “waste paper, time, and money to respond to all ten petitioners which were unnecessary.”
Unsatisfied with the judgement, the UWP, in November 2020, appealed the decision claiming that the Judge specifically erred in law.
They also appealed against the order of cost stating that “the Order fails to consider that the Petitioner’s/Appellants summary for direction application in January 2020 requested that the petitions be dealt with as one petition and for further directions of the court.”
At the appeal hearing on April 28, 2021, lead counsel for the DLP team, Senior Counsel (SC) Anthony Astaphan, told the Judges that the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the appeal, asking that the matter be dismissed with cost to the respondents.
Astaphan further argued that it was an abuse of the court process that the petitioners came to appeal the ruling of Justice Glasgow.
However, the attorney for the petitioners, Zahidha James posited that a number of the learned Judge’s legal findings were erroneous and argued that the matter before him is of great public importance and, therefore, it is not in keeping with the overriding objective and the public interest for the election petition proceedings to end at that stage in view of the judge’s errors.
James added that if the ECSC has no jurisdiction to hear the matter, politicians would feel free to do as they please.
In the judgment of Chief Justice, Hon. Dame Janice Pereira, Hon. Mde. Gertel Thom Justice of Appeal and the Hon. Mr. Gerard St. C. Farara, QC Justice of Appeal [Ag.], the Judges said the application challenging the jurisdiction of the Court to hear an appeal, in circumstances such as the present case, it would be highly unusual for the Court to examine any alleged substantive errors or demerits of the decision of the court below, prior to the determination of the threshold of jurisdiction.
“Such an examination would be tantamount to an assumption of jurisdiction in relation to the substantive appeal for the purpose of determining whether the Court in fact had jurisdiction, “the appeal judges wrote in a 27-page ruling.
They added that although election petitions involve matters of considerable public interest, there are no legal principles that permit resort to such a course in proceedings of this nature.
The Judges further stated, there is no sustainable argument in this case that the learned judge exceeded the scope of inquiry required on an application to strike, and therefore that his treatment of the respondents’ applications to strike out the election petitions transformed his decision into a final decision.
“The judge clearly confined himself to assessing the pleadings with a view to determining whether they were sufficient to sustain particularised cases for the avoidance of the election. In the circumstances, the judge’s decision was not a final decision within the contemplation of sections 40(6) and 40(7) of the Constitution,” the ECSC judges concluded.
The appeal was dismissed and the petitioners/appellants were ordered to pay, within 21 days, costs to each of the respondents in the sum of $2,000.
This judgement was further appealed to the highest appeal court for Dominica, the CCJ, who in a December 9, ruling by Justice A Saunders, PCCJ, Justice J Wit, JCCJ and Justice W Anderson, JCCJ, said the Court has the jurisdiction to entertain the Notice of Application for Special Leave to appeal.
Linton expressed his elation on the CCJ decision to delegates at the UWP delegates conference which was held over the weekend and vowed to continue continue in his fight for “free and fair” elections in Dominica.
“Skerrit cannot take from people their right to decide who their government should be but that is what has been happening for the last election cycles and nobody will stop it but this United Workers Party,” he declared.
Those clowns that call themselves so-called ” UWP-you will always be poor “Supporters more worried about Labour party than they are about their squishy party, that is falling apart ugly lenny, has no idea how to save his sinking ship and lets face it ugly lenny, isn’t a winner. I doubt he can even swim to save his life in a tea cup much less a disable or crippled malfunction party, it’s time to kick that useless guy out he is no opposition leader!!!
Well next year if the CCJ rule against this corrupt bassos then and only then we we may see justice … I say jail skerite… remind austrie and the rest corrupt minions ..melt the keys .. and I hope the jailbords in stockman butter they bottom for them
DLP has just beaten Bwa-Banday,Jey Jey and their group of MANICOU and Agouti hunters by 1,068 in Grandbay
This no shame Bwa-Banday is posting BS about Grandbay Liberation Movement and ccj.
The other JACKA Jey Jey,UWP are the hungry people crying for turkey and ham.Hams and turkeys were given to Labour party supporters by the LABOUR PARTY and not government.UWP should give their supporters turkey and ham from the millions of dollars collected on behalf of UWP.
Dogged tenacity and determination beat tonnes of money.
How about the three constituencies that the UWP won? How are they so certain that there was no electoral fraud there? Is the UWP saying that “heads I win; tails you lose”?
Nice one. I use to play that game with my little bro when we were little and he use to wonder why he never win.
Bwa-Banday must be a feeder of DONKEYS.Posting the same BS just a different day.UWP is a DEAD political party
A group of outdated greedy politicians.A load of recycled gabbage.A container of rejected PORK BELLY waiting to be dumped after the next election.Everything Midas touch turned to Gold,everything UWP toucn turned to SH…..
“Linton expressed his elation on the CCJ decision to delegates at the UWP delegates conference which was held over the weekend and vowed to continue continue in his fight for “free and fair” elections in Dominica”.
Our system of justice is working. Right? But only when you win
@ jey jey, not sure what your gripe is all about. You moaning that all labor supporters are unemployed, but if you are employed it would mean that you and all the UWP supporters that are employed are enjoying the benefits of the jobs created by this labor administration. How is this FAIR to the supporters who voted for a labour administration. Your lot keep getting beat over and over again overwhelmingly. No court can overturn the will of the people. You all know that you are just making the lawyers richer every time you lose and going to court to try and change the results in your favor. This is getting so boring. Every time Linton say he taking the government to court following another election defeat, people just switch off.
Everything in favour of this uneducated DON KEY is fair,Everything against this uneducated DON KEY is unfair.Such an idiot.
What the hell is the matter with ugly lenny, that guy is a waste of time fooling himself as well his supporters who is foolish enough to believe his nonsense anyone can see ugly lenny, is a fake, and his clowns still voting him in to be their leader boy what a wasted bunch of clowns. If ugly lenny, was an English or a European football league manger he would be kicked out on the streets after losing three games, furthermore losing countless general- elections against the mighty leadership of P.m. Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit,Labour party ha ha ha sult-sucker!!!
Mr.Jet Hey,Dr Roosevelt Skerrit brought CLEAR HARBOUR approximately 1,000 people are employed there.He invented the NEP,about 3,400 has been employed there for 9 years.The YES WE CARE the brainchild of Skerrit has about 300 people involved.Skerrit has employed more police,nurses,teachers and firemen than any other government in the history of Dominica.
Are you saying the majority or all those employed are UWPITES?According to the traffic dept.there are 37,000 registered vehicles in Dominica.Are you saying all the vehicles are owned by UWPITES? Skerrit has 2,700 $300 monthly people on the payroll are you saying they are all UWPITES?.No wonder you support UWP,your high level of …….. leaves you in ignorance of reality.I wonder who is the JACKA because the vast majority of UWP supporters say Skerrit is giving all DLP supporters the GOODIES?
Next year is going to be very hottttttt in Dca. The Grand Bay Liberation Movement gave the government January to deliver or else! Now CCJ going to teach them and all the corrupt judges a lesson. Its fixing to get very very hot here people!
Grandbay Liberation lol! So you mean the “Liberation” put them back under slavery and giving ultimatum? Wake up, Grandbay is sold and dead. Anybody with an ounce of fight is gone the only one left is Handbag and he alone cant do sh…
This decision of the CCJ is good news for democracy in Dominca and the region. However why does it have to take so long after the election to come to this righteous ruling. Look how quickly the judiciary in the USA met and ruled in the matters to do with the 2020 general election, yet it’s two damn years later that the Caribbean judicial process is giving this ruling and the matter isn’t complete yet . Justice delayed is justice denied aptly applies here. This is bad law when it’s not done in a timely manner. If it’s a matter of not enough staff then these corrupt politicians need to provide more funds to ensure that justice becomes just.
The know-it-all, Tony A**-taphan, has once again been shown to be dangerous legal poison to the sub-region. He advises some of the governments and as such the bend towards authoritarianism we see in the OECS can be attributed in part to the poisonous advice of legal council, the common denominator is Tony. The moral arc bends towards justice.
All we want is FAIRNESS. That’s a word which the labor party is very afraid of. One man is fighting exceedingly hard to avoid answering for his corruption. In this fight, he uses the country’s money to buy supporters; Hungry and lazy supporters. Most of the labor supporters are either unemployed, or are not employable. They have a Red Clinic giving them everything but a job. Sacres toneh mousheh..
Why don’t you help Lennox Linton get a real job. Lennox is so much corrupted that he cannot get a job and, he is squandering his supporters money giving it to the courts. When the courts are not on your side you all get mad. you cannot win all the time. Jey, Jey, get a life, boy.
But ds, they never win anything! So what do you mean, “you cannot win all the time”? You making those guys feel proud for nothing wee!