Election petitions not frivolous – Gonsalves says

The petitions filed in the High Court against Prime Minister Godwin Friday and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble are “not frivolous,” says Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves.

Gonsalves was responding on Monday to a comment the prime minister made following the first case management hearing at the High Court in Kingstown on Thursday, after which the minister told the media that the matter was taking up public time, resources as well as the court’s time.

“The people elected me to do their business, I’m spending two hours in the court here answering a frivolous application,” Friday said.

But Gonsalves, speaking on his weekly radio show on Star Rasio, said the prime minister “was mouthing the word frivolous, but he knows it’s not frivolous…

“He knows that this is a serious matter to be addressed,” the opposition leader said.

Gonsalves referred to the 2015 general elections in which the then-opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), of which Friday was a vice-president at the time, filed petitions and held protests accusing the Unity Labour Party (ULP) of stealing the elections.

“They had no case and the case crumbled, but they dragged it on,” Gonsalves said.

He added that the NDP also organised a group known then as the “Frontline”, which, Gonsalves said, was tasked with harassing then Supervisor of Elections Sylvia Findlay-Scubb daily.

“The woman was verbally abused, words were thrown at her on a daily basis,” Gonsalves said.

He accused Friday and the NDP of giving the country a bad reputation, saying that the allegation that the 2015 general elections were not free and fair kept potential investments out.

“People do not want to come to a place which reeks of political instability. That is what we had to endure for five years. So, just don’t get amnesia Friday,” Gonsalves said.

“Don’t get amnesia as to what persons like yourself instigated and supported for a period of five years.”

After the NDP lost the petitions, they appealed and dragged on the hearing, which has not taken place.

“The elections were held in 2020 with the notice of appeal, but they did nothing further but keeping the fiction alive that they had an appeal before the court,” the opposition leader said.

Gonsalves, however, said that the ULP has no intention of dragging out the current petition.

He said that he had been advised by the petitioners were moving expeditiously to have the matter dealt with and the lawyers have been so instructed.

“And we will have a determination not too long from now, first at the High Court and then whichever side loses, will go to the Court of Appeal and whatever the Court of Appeal says, that will be it,” Gonsalves said.

On Thursday, the prime minister appeared unbothered as he exited the High Court in Kingstown after a case management session.

“Yeah. It’s a beautiful day,” he said when asked by the media to comment.

“It is a wonderful day. Look at the sunshine,” he said as he raised his hand to the sky, then directed the media to the lead counsel for the government, Anand Ramlogan S.C., of Trinidad and Tobago.

Williams is challenging the election of Friday and Browne the election of Bramble, saying their Canadian citizenship bars them from qualifying as candidates for election to the Parliament of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Friday has been MP for Northern Grenadines since 2001, while Brmable is in his second five-year term as MP for East Kingstown.

“It is far too important for it not be determined and not frivolous; it is a matter of great constitutional importance,” Gonsalves said.