As expected, the United National Congress (UNC) has filed its appeal over the dismissal of its election petition for the district of Lengua/Indian Walk before the Court of Appeal.
High Court Judge Marissa Robertson dismissed the petition on Wednesday and the UNC believes that she made several errors in considering the evidence and legal issues before her.
In its notice of appeal, filed yesterday afternoon, the party’s lawyers raised 11 grounds under which they claimed Justice Robertson erred in making her decision on the petition.
UNC Senator Jayanti Lutchmedial, who was also part of the party’s legal team, said 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.”