KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Nov 12, CMC -Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday says he remains confident of victory as his legal team will resume their submissions in the election petition case here on Thursday.
“I have confidence in our legal team. They are very well prepared. They understand what the legal issues are, what the political issues are,” Friday said as the Trinidad-based Senior Counsel, Anand Ramlogan, will continue his submissions in the case in which the eligibility of the prime minister and his Foreign Affairs Minister Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble to sit in the Parliament following last November’s general election has been challenged.
The two defeated candidates of the main opposition Unity Labour Party (ULP) Augustus Carlos Williams and Luke Browne argue that both Friday and Bramble should be disqualified under Section 26(1)(a) of the Constitution because they voluntarily acquired Canadian citizenship.
They also maintain that they posted notices before the polls warning voters that ballots cast for Friday and Bramble would be wasted.
Friday said his confidence in being victorious is based on the “wonderful job” Ramlogan has so far made before Justice Gerthel Thom, who court observers say is most likely to reserve her judgement following the presentations on Thursday.
Friday, who has been a legislator since 2001, maintained that he and Bramble have always viewed the constitutional challenge as a clear-cut matter.
“… We will prevail, and the people of this country have a right to be governed by the government that they choose, and you have a situation of 14-1 — I know it hurts, but you got to take your licks,” he said, in reference to New Democratic Party’s 14–1 parliamentary majority over the ULP.
Ramlogan said that the defeated candidates were trying to strip his clients of their parliamentary seats even as the voters had ignored their pre-election “wasted vote” warnings.
Ramlogan said that while the case is important constitutionally, it is an unfortunate matter from a practical standpoint.
“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 St. Vincent and the Grenadines, but indeed in the wider Caribbean,” Ramlogan said.
Another Trinidad-based Senior Counsel, Stuart Young, who is representing the two defeated ULP candidates and is expected to respond to Ramlogan’s submissions, had earlier told the High Court that both Friday and Bramble should surrender their Canadian citizenship.
“Give up your Canadian citizenship. What is so precious in it?” Young said, noting that Prime Minister Friday had earlier testified that leading the country is “the greatest honour of his life”.
Young argued that despite adopting such a position Friday has chosen to voluntarily retain his Canadian citizenship, insisting that individuals elected to Parliament cannot hold allegiance to a foreign power or state.
He told the court that when the law was updated in the past, lawmakers could have exempted Commonwealth citizens from Section 26 of the Constitution and Section 35 of the Representation of the People Act, if they were of the opinion that such an exemption should apply.
Young said that the Constitution contains mandatory disqualification provisions and added that these cannot be selectively applied.
“You cannot cherry-pick,” Young said, noting that an individual may meet the basic qualifications to serve, yet remain barred if they are a judge, bankrupt, or of unsound mind.
He said that by taking the oath taken to acquire Canadian citizenship, the respondents committed voluntary acts that trigger disqualification under the Constitution.
He disagreed with the claims that the respondents’ rights are being taken away, saying that the Constitution confers no such right to sit in Parliament while holding foreign citizenship.
Young pointed to his own status as a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago—another Commonwealth nation—noting that he cannot run for election in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
He said that holding dual status results in a split allegiance.
Young also dismissed the evidence provided by the Trinidad-based Professor Hamid Ghany—whom the respondents called as an expert witness in late September to testify on Commonwealth citizenship and parliamentary qualification—saying his testimony was of little or no value to the court.
Young told the court that lawmakers should not put themselves in a position of potential conflict, asking what happens when Canada takes a different position to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Young argued that elected representatives should have a “clean slate” of allegiance and avoid any “perceived split loyalty” urging the court to declare petitioners Browne and Williams the duly elected representatives for East Kingstown and the Northern Grenadines, respectively, or, in the alternative, to declare the election of Friday and Bramble null and void.
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