BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - TEAM UNITY candidate for Constituency Number Four Lindsay Grant is confident that the directives outlined in a recent court judgment would see an improvement in the objection process in his constituency. And has warned former registration officer and current Supervisor of Elections Wingrove George to obey the order of the court or be held in contempt.
Speaking at a UNITY press conference held today (Sept. 11) at their campaign headquarters, Grant said Justice Darshan Ramdhani made a landmark judgment against George concerning voter-registration objections.
When the court action was taken, George was the Registration Officer for Constituency Number Four.
Grant disclosed that court matter hinged on “serious deficiencies surrounding the issue of the hearing of objections for persons who have claimed to be legally registered”.
He said the Judge delivered clear directions that ought to be followed by the Supervisor of Elections, an office which George now fills.
“In this particular case Justice Ramdhani has given certain directions and those directions have to be carried out by the registration officer otherwise he will be in contempt of court. The directions are very clear...in fact they are crystal clear by Justice Ramdhani.
“Go and decide if the person got notice; if they got notice take them off the list. If they have not been given notice, hear the matters presented and take them off also. There is no way of getting around it.”
Grant forecast what he feels may take place in implementing the measures of the Court.
“What I foresee happening is that these matters would take a long time for the directions to be carried out, but we have other avenues to ensure that these matters are done.
“There is what is called a mandamus. A mandamus is where we go to the court asking the court to mandate persons to carry out a directive. A mandamus is something that I am absolutely certain Mr. George would not like to face Mr. Ramdhani or any judge with…”
He added that Justice Ramdhani’s judgment will now be the standard for all registration officers to meet.
“This will now be the bible for registration officers.”
