Justice Cicely Chase has thrown out the challenge to the suit brought to halt the General Elections, saying she did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter and that it ought to have been brought before an election court.
She said the action was incorrectly filed.
Arguments were heard from attorney Lalu Hanuman, who brought the challenge on behalf of St Thomas constituency hopeful, Philip Nathanial Catlyn, of the Barbados Sovereignty Party (BSP), as well as Queen’s Counsel Alrick Scott who represents President The Most Honourable Dame Sandra Mason and Queen’s Counsel Roger Forde who appears for the Attorney General.
Catlyn was seeking a restraining order against the holding of Wednesday’s General Elections until “the disenfranchisement of thousands of electors who are in quarantine due to the zoonotic COVID-19 viral pandemic is resolved beforehand”.
The suit challenged Dame Sandra Mason’s dissolution of Parliament on December 27, last year, and the issuing of Election Writs, saying the act was unauthorised, contrary to law and illegal; arbitrary, unreasonable, irrational, irregular and an improper exercise of discretion; that it was capricious, erroneous, an excess of jurisdiction, ultra vires and an abuse of power and that it was in conflict with Section 6 of the Representation of the People Act. (HLE)