Geisha Kow­lessar

While for­mer Op­po­si­tion leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley was sworn in as Prime Min­is­ter dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny at Queen's Hall, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, for­mer prime min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar was chal­leng­ing the re­sult of Mon­day's gen­er­al elec­tion and ask­ing that it be de­clared null and void.

She al­so chas­tised the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC) for what she claimed was a sud­den change in the reg­u­la­tions, re­sult­ing in the en­tire process be­ing sab­o­taged. In a let­ter is­sued yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment's 23-18 vic­to­ry as un­fair. Per­sad-Bisses­sar blamed the ex­tend­ed hour grant­ed to cit­i­zens as play­ing a key role in what she main­tained was a bi­ased re­sult.

"A de­ci­sion has been tak­en to chal­lenge the re­sults of the gen­er­al elec­tion based on le­gal ad­vice the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship has re­ceived. The chal­lenge is based on the sud­den de­ci­sion of the EBC to ex­tend the time for vot­ing from 6 pm to 7 pm through­out the coun­try with­out any of­fi­cial no­ti­fi­ca­tion to the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship and its con­stituent par­ties," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

She said the rules which gov­ern a gen­er­al elec­tion were quite clear, adding that strict ad­her­ence to such rules was ab­solute­ly nec­es­sary to min­imise and avoid ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties. Fail­ure to do so, Per­sad-Bisses­sar added, would re­sult in al­le­ga­tions and per­cep­tions of un­fair­ness and favouritism.

In ques­tion­ing the late swing of the votes in favour of the PNM dur­ing the count, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: "In­for­ma­tion and da­ta re­ceived by the par­ty strong­ly sug­gest­ed that the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship was com­fort­ably ahead in the polls at 6 pm."The march to vic­to­ry was ad­verse­ly af­fect­ed by the sud­den uni­lat­er­al de­ci­sion by the EBC to ex­tend hours of the poll from 6 pm to 7 pm."

In chastis­ing the EBC, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the or­gan­i­sa­tion "can­not and should not" change the rules of en­gage­ment with­out giv­ing prop­er no­tice to can­di­dates, po­lit­i­cal par­ties and vot­ers."We have re­ceived re­ports that cit­i­zens were un­able to cast their vote at cer­tain polling sta­tions be­cause the of­fi­cials of the EBC were them­selves un­aware or un­cer­tain about the de­ci­sion to ex­tend the time of vot­ing un­til 7 pm.

"Ad­di­tion­al­ly, many cit­i­zens were un­aware of this ex­ten­sion of time and hence did not cast their vote," Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­leged.In cit­ing Rule 27 (1) of the elec­tion rules, she said the "tak­ing of the poll at each polling sta­tion shall be be­tween 6 in the morn­ing and 6 in the af­ter­noon of the same day."

Any sus­pen­sion or ad­journ­ment must be based on fair and ad­e­quate pri­or pub­lic no­tice to en­sure there was a lev­el play­ing field, she said.Thus, the poll could have been ad­journed to the fol­low­ing day to fa­cil­i­tate those who were un­able to cast their vote for good rea­son. This has in fact hap­pened in the past, Per­sad-Bisses­sar point­ed out.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the PP had al­so been ad­vised that the de­ci­sion by the EBC to give an ex­tra hour un­der­mined the le­gal frame­work which gov­erned the con­duct of the gen­er­al elec­tion and was tan­ta­mount of the shift­ing of the po­lit­i­cal goal post at the end of the game."This might have very well af­fect­ed the in­tegri­ty of the process and the re­sults in crit­i­cal con­stituen­cies.

"This is a se­ri­ous and im­por­tant vi­o­la­tion of the spir­it and in­ten­tion of the Con­sti­tu­tion, the Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Peo­ple's Act and the elec­tion rules. We will there­fore file these elec­tion pe­ti­tions to en­sure that the rule of law is up­held and jus­tice is done," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

Mon­day was the sec­ond time the EBC ex­tend­ed vot­ing hours. The oth­er oc­ca­sion was dur­ing the De­cem­ber 4, 1961 elec­tion due to prob­lems with vot­ing ma­chines. Cab­i­net met in emer­gency ses­sion then to ap­prove the ex­ten­sion of hours.

Ramesh: Vex­a­tious claim

For­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Ramesh Lawrence Ma­haraj de­scribed Per­sad-Bisses­sar's al­le­ga­tions as friv­o­lous and vex­a­tious.Speak­ing briefly on CNC 3 last night, Ma­haraj said the EBC was al­so well with­in its right to ex­tend the vot­ing hours.

"It does not seem to me on the face of it that it can hold be­cause the EBC is an in­de­pen­dent com­mis­sion, giv­en as one of its pri­ma­ry func­tions and the ob­ject to have fair elec­tions in T&T," Ma­haraj said.He said in an in­stance where the EBC be­lieved there was an in­ci­dent which cre­at­ed an emer­gency sit­u­a­tion, and which could have af­fect­ed the fair­ness of the elec­tion by de­priv­ing some peo­ple a chance to vote dur­ing the time of vot­ing, it had the pow­er, "ex­pressed or im­plied," to en­sure that oc­curred.

"Giv­ing an ex­tra hour can­not in, and even be said, to vi­o­late the pow­ers of the EBC," Ma­haraj added.

How­ev­er, he said that is­sue would not ham­per the elect­ed gov­ern­ment from car­ry­ing out its func­tions, adding that the move by Per­sad-Bisses­sar was a fu­tile at­tempt to "keep the old gov­ern­ment in of­fice."

"In or­der for that to oc­cur an ap­pli­ca­tion would have to be made to a court for a court to grant a re­triev­ing or­der to pre­vent a new Gov­ern­ment from tak­ing of­fice, but no court would grant such an or­der be­cause to get such an or­der you have to first show you have a strong le­gal case. I think the court would hold that this claim is friv­o­lous and vex­a­tious and an abuse of the court."