TT Court blocks Party Elections

A High Court blocked Sunday’s election for a new leader for the small opposition Congress of the People (COP) party that was once a member of a coalition government in Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Justice Ricky Rahim ruled that the election, in which three women were vying for the top post be postponed. He made the ruling after hearing an injunction filed by a COP member on Thursday against the holding of the elections. The injunction was made on , on the grounds that there was no national executive committee in the party due to the number of resignations that took place earlier in the week.

 

Poll - a legal battle

 

COP leader, Dr Anirudh Mahabir, his deputy Lauren Pouchet and the party’s general secretary Clyde Weatherhead tendered their resignations ahead of the August 20 election. The poll has become the center of a legal battle by a few disgruntled members who are opposed to one of the candidates contesting the leadership of the party that was part of the government here between 2010-15.

 

In a statement, Mahabir and Weatherhead noted that legal proceedings had started last week in the High Court in a matter brought by Kirt Francis, who is challenging the candidacy of Nicole Dyer-Griffith. The right to vote of 35 other persons in the election was also challenged.

Executive to meet on or before Sept. 4

 

During Friday’s court hearing, Justice Rahim urged the various attorneys to discuss the issue with a view to arriving at an amicable resolution.

 

The injunction was filed against the COP chairman Jamieson Bahadur Bahadur. The attorney for Dyer-Griffith was successful in getting the court’s permission to have her joined as an interested party to the proceedings.

 

The Court ordered that the COP national executive meet on or before September 4 and that the national executive consider the applications for membership of the 35 members who resigned.