By Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Wednesday 28th February 2023)-Premier and Leader of the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) Mark Brantley, has highlighted details of the judgment in the election petition ruling which points at late date and failure to physically serve notice by his political opponents of the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) which led to the matters being struck out.
Brantley, speaking during his monthly press conference held on Tuesday 28th February 2023 spoke about the ruling by Justice Thompson Jr. handed down the day before at the high court. He summed up the matter as one “on whether or not the election petitions that had been filed by losing candidates of the NRP Dr.
Patricia Bartlette and Ms. Jadee Caines whether or not those petitions should have been struck out or whether they should have been permitted to continue to trial. The judge ruled these petitions be struck out and that brings an end therefore these petitions brought by Dr.
Bartlette and by Ms. Caines.” Brantley, a trained lawyer, stated that “The judge also went further and ruled that they be ordered to pay costs.” “I think that some of it is quite instructive in terms of what the judge had to say.
The judge would have, in a well-reasoned judgment running some ten pages. The judge would have set out initially, he dealt with commencing at paragraph fiveThe Caines petition…” In relation to Caines’ petition, Brantley stated that “The judge helpfully set out the calendar because it appears that there was some difficulties in counting the relevant days and he says here at paragraph 12 ‘this court finds in the Caines’ petition was filed on January 10th , 2023 and not within the 21-day prescribed for doing so.
The Caines’ petition is thus a nullity and struck out and dismissed. This court notes that no evidence was advanced by counsel for the petition of Caines to explain why their own petition by their own arithmetic was filed on the last possible day of doing so.
This court has no jurisdiction to extend the time for the filing of an election petition but in the court’s view it behooved the petition of Caines to [offer] some explanation to the general public as to why their petition was filed so late. Election petitions are matters of significant public interest, and the fact that the Caines petition was filed four days after the Bartlette petition has not escaped this court’s attention particularly since both petitions appear to belong to the same political party.
The Caines petition being filed at the eleventh hour ran the risk of succumbing to the respondents’ challenge. Future election petitioners should do well to avoid this risk by filing as soon as is reasonably practicable’.” Brantley said the judge went on to paragraph 14 to deal separately with the Bartlette petition.“At paragraph 17, the learned judge says this: ‘Everyone has agreed that while the petition of Dr.
Bartlette did serve the respondents with a copy of the petition, the respondents were not personally served with the notice of presentation of the petition since a copy of this notice was filed on the e-portal , that is the court’s e- portal on January 19th 2023. Everyone has agreed, including counsel for Dr.
Bartlette that the failure to strictly comply with the requirements of the act in election rules meant that a court’s jurisdiction to strike out a petition was engaged’.” Brantley said the judge continued at paragraph 20: ‘Counsel for the petition of Dr. Bartlette conceded albeit with some reluctance that there was no physical service of the presentation of the notice of the petition nor of the notice of security.
Furthermore, counsel accepted the authorities confirmed that the requirement for service was mandatory and peremptory and that non-compliance with these requirements meant that Dr. Bartlette’s petition was liable to be struck out if noncompliance was proved .
In this court’s view, counsel’s tacit puts an end to any argument by Dr. Bartlette to the contrary. The failure to physically serve the notice of presentation of petition and the notice of security is fatal to the validity of the Bartlette petition’.” Front Page Images:(Left) Premier and Leader of the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) Mark Brantley, and (Right) A look at the scene of the NRP’s silent protest on Sunday 18th December 2022 (NRP official photo)
