IN a recent development, a new High Court judge will now hear the leave application filed by a Tobago resident against the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) over its report which led to creation of three new electoral districts on the island.
On October 25, Justice Carol Gobin ordered the leave application of June Jack Mc Kenzie be heard as a rolled-up hearing, meaning it would be heard along with the substantive claim.
She also said she would rule on November 22, after setting a strict timeline for filing of submissions and evidence.
On November 1, attorneys for the Attorney General filed an application asking that Jack-McKenzie’s leave application be set aside on the basis that she failed to bring the challenge promptly and was guilty of inordinate delay in bringing judicial review proceedings.
In the application, the AG contended that Jack McKenzie engaged in a debate over whether the EBC took into account irrelevant considerations in the drawing of boundaries given that the Order, which set the date for the election on December 6, had already been made.
Gobin, in correspondence with attorneys on receipt of the AG’s application, reminded of her earlier difficulty as she was proceeding on vacation and said she would not be able to deal with the application and would send it to the emergency judge for consideration.
The matter was then assigned to Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams who earlier this week, said the matter was now before her and she would be suspending Gobin’s orders for the rolled-up hearing and dealing with the leave application on Monday.
In the AG’s application, it is the position of the State that the effect of the reliefs sought by Jack McKenzie, if granted, will serve to render the December 6 THA election illegal.
The application also said the question of whether an election was unlawful needed to be determined by the High Court in a representation (election) petition in accordance with sections 106 and 129 of the Representation of the People Act and not otherwise.
The State further contends that, for now, the court has no jurisdiction to entertain Jack McKenzie’s application.
Jack McKenzie, of Bacolet, Tobago, a former constituency secretary for the late Arthur NR Robinson, a former Tobago East MP, complained that some of the methodology used by the EBC to determine the new districts was outside its statutory powers.
She wants the court to declare the EBC’s consideration of “community fragmentation and ensuring they were not divided” in arriving at the new districts was unlawful and should be voided and for the 2021 EBC Order, proclaimed by the President, which gave effect to the creation of the three additional seats, to be declared unlawful.
Jack McKenzie wants the court to quash the order and the EBC’s report.
She is represented by attorneys Dinesh Rambally, Kiel Taklalsingh, Stefan Ramkissoon and Rhea Khan.
Representing the EBC are Deborah Peake, SC, and Ravi Heffes-Doon. Douglas Mendes, SC, and Ravindra Nanga are representing the Attorney General, who h
