The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment is await­ing the out­come of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress’ ap­peal of its elec­tion pe­ti­tion mat­ter on the Lengua/In­di­an Walk dis­trict. Speak­ing yes­ter­day af­ter the UNC filed its ap­peal, PNM PRO Faris Al-Rawi said the par­ty is con­fi­dent in the rule of law and its po­si­tion on the is­sue.

The move came af­ter the court on Wednes­day re­ject­ed the UNC’s elec­tion pe­ti­tion con­cern­ing the out­come of the Au­gust 14, 2023 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion re­sults for Lengua/In­di­an Walk.

The pe­ti­tion was based on what oc­curred in two re­counts (and two ties) for the area when PNM can­di­date Aut­ley Granthume was de­clared the win­ner over UNC can­di­date Nicole Gopaul.

The Elec­tion and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion had de­clared an­oth­er poll was nec­es­sary in that dis­trict. A spe­cial bal­lot for Gopaul, which would have bro­ken the tie, was re­ject­ed by the pre­sid­ing of­fi­cer due to the re­turn­ing of­fi­cer’s fail­ure to ini­tial it. The UNC filed the elec­tion pe­ti­tion based on this. But the court re­ject­ed the pe­ti­tion.

Al-Rawi, who is al­so the Min­is­ter of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, was un­fazed by the lat­est le­gal ma­noeu­vre.

“The PNM has been a par­tic­i­pant in the democ­ra­cy of our coun­try from a Par­lia­ment and par­ty per­spec­tive since pri­or to our in­de­pen­dence. The fil­ing of elec­tion pe­ti­tions and any ap­peals are par for the course and a mat­ter in which the present Gov­ern­ment—my­self in­clud­ed—have a great amount of ex­pe­ri­ence in,” he said.

“Ac­cord­ing­ly, the par­ty will await and abide by the Court of Ap­peal’s de­ci­sion, which is the fi­nal court for hear­ing of mat­ter of this na­ture. We re­main con­fi­dent in the rule of law and in the par­ty’s de­ci­sion.”

Yes­ter­day, UNC Sen­a­tor Jayan­ti Lutch­me­di­al, who was al­so part of the par­ty’s le­gal team, con­firmed the ap­peal was filed and the par­ty has asked for the hear­ing to be ex­pe­dit­ed and heard as soon as pos­si­ble.

Lutch­me­di­al was con­fi­dent this would be done, since the new Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion coun­cil is yet to meet. Coun­cil­lors who won their seats in the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion were sworn in but no chair­man or vice chair­man has been elect­ed yet for that area, nor has the coun­cil met, cor­po­ra­tion of­fi­cials said.

Lutch­me­di­al said the ap­peal can on­ly be heard in the Court of Ap­peal, not the Privy Coun­cil, which is the coun­try’s high­est court.

Lutch­me­di­al said the is­sues de­serve ju­di­cial con­sid­er­a­tion af­ford­ed by the law, which in the case of elec­tion pe­ti­tions, is the Court of Ap­peal.

“This isn’t mere­ly a po­lit­i­cal mat­ter but an im­por­tant point of law to be re­solved. In essence, the fail­ure of an EBC of­fi­cial to per­form his or her du­ties as pre­scribed by the law can lead to a bal­lot be­ing in­val­i­dat­ed and not count­ed.”