Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan says the defeated candidates trying to strip his clients of their parliamentary seats suffered a double rejection at the polls—with voters ignoring their alleged pre-election “wasted vote” warnings and overwhelmingly backing their opponents.
Ramlogan spoke to iWitness News outside the court in Kingstown on Wednesday, following closing arguments in the trial.
He represents Prime Minister Godwin Friday and Minister of Foreign Affairs Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble.
Defeated Unity Labour Party (ULP) candidates Augustus Carlos Williams and Luke Browne filed the petitions after the November general election. Williams and Browne want Justice Gertel Thom to void the results in the Northern Grenadines and East Kingstown constituencies and award them the seats. The petitioners argue that Friday and Bramble were disqualified from running because they hold Canadian citizenship. They also maintain that they posted notices before the polls warning voters that ballots cast for Friday and Bramble would be wasted.
Ramlogan said that while the case is important constitutionally, it is an unfortunate matter from a practical standpoint.
If you warn people that you do not want them to vote for a candidate like Dr. Friday or Mr. Bramble because their votes could be wasted, and you put up—according to the petitioners—posters to warn people about that, and people nevertheless, notwithstanding that, still love them enough to vote for them and reject you to the extent that Dr. Friday, you know, more than quadruples the amount of votes that you get, it’s like a double whammy. It’s a double rejection,” Ramlogan said.
In the general election, the New Democratic Party (NDP) won 14 of the 15 parliamentary seats, ending nearly 25 years of ULP rule. Friday won the Northern Grenadines seat, and Bramble won East Kingstown.
Ramlogan said that the petitioners’ effort to claim the seats is anti-democratic.
“I’m warning you not to vote for someone. You still go and you wouldn’t give me your vote. You vote for the same person, and this person is trying, by a technical knockout, as it were, to say, “Well, look, give me the seat.” I mean, you know, it is very anti-democratic. It sounds bad, it smells bad, it looks bad, and it’s going to taste bad,” Ramlogan said.
He continued his point, saying the voice of the people is the voice of God.
“And the voice of the people spoke overwhelmingly as to who they wanted to run St Vincent and the Grenadines, and they wanted Dr. Friday, they wanted Mr. Bramble, and they have elected a new government,” Ramlogan said.
The legal dispute centres on whether holding Canadian citizenship disqualifies a candidate under Section 26 of the Constitution, or if Section 25 permits Commonwealth citizens to run for office.
At the end of the day, the quicker this matter finishes so that Dr. Friday can get back to doing the work that he is elected to do—which is to govern the country in the best interest of the people, to make meaningful progress, and to repair the damage that has been done—the better off we’d all be, not just in SVG, but indeed in the wider Caribbean,” Ramlogan said.
He added that the case touches on SVG’s historical and geopolitical relationship with the Commonwealth.
“And you couldn’t have a better, more tangible reminder of that than the pictures that we have seen throughout the Commonwealth Caribbean of Dr. Friday meeting His Majesty at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference, and you know the way he was greeted so warmly and the respect that he was shown at CHOGM [Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting] tells us how important SVG is and the respect that Dr. Friday commands…” Ramlogan said.