The Court of Appeal will rule next month on a challenge brought by social and political activist, Ravi Balgobin Maharaj, against the decision by the Trinidad and Tobago government to postpone the local government election (LGE) by a year.
Former attorney general, Anand Ramlogan, had argued during the two-day hearing that if the government was allowed to extend the life of regional corporations, then it could just as easily extend its own life and be allowed to call a general election outside of the timeframe it was constitutionally due.
“If you sanction this, then you sanction that,” said Ramlogan, adding that citizens always had the right to vote in local government elections since the 1940s and this was never changed even after Trinidad and Tobago gained Independence and had adopted Republican status.
“The structure of our democracy has always been two-tiered. The will of the people is reflected in two places – in the House of Representatives and in local government elections,” he said.
But Senior Counsel, Douglas Mendes, while agreeing that citizens enjoyed the right to vote, said there was nothing in the Constitution which stated they had to vote only three years after they did so in the last local government election.
“My learned friend cannot point to any part of the Constitution which says that you have the right to vote in local government elections three years after you last voted,” Mendes said, adding “he must appreciate that the time for his right to vote is within the hands of the legislature”.
Balgobin Maharaj is arguing that the last local government election took place in December 2019 and that those elected were to occupy office for just three years.
Local government election was due between December 2022 and March 2023, however, the partial proclamation of local government reform legislation allowed for the extension of the terms of councilors and aldermen to four years.
Balgobin Maharaj is challenging the Local Government Reform Act, which contains amendments to the Municipal Corporations Act. The bill was passed by a simple majority last year, allowing for a delay of the LGE.
In November last year, High Court judge, Justice Jacqueline Wilson, refused to grant interim relief to Ravi Balgobin Maharaj by declaring that, as of December 4 2021, the offices of all aldermen and councilors would be vacant.
The Court of Appeal has since reserved its ruling with the three-panel judges saying they needed time to consider but would deliver it before the end of the month if not sooner.
CMC
