By Prior Beharry
THE Progressive Empowerment Party (PEP) wants the nomination process for the Debe South bye-election to be extended for 14 days from January 17, 2022.
The bye-election is scheduled for February 7 and Nomination Day is Monday (January 17).
The PEP has sent a pre-action protocol letter to the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) and its Chief Elections Officer Fern Narcis-Scope on Friday.
The letter stated, “In the premises, our client calls upon you to extend the time for the nomination process for a further 14 days from February 17, 2022, to ensure active and meaningful participation in the democratic process, by allowing smaller parties who may not possess the financial and other resources of the so-called larger political parties, to ready itself for election within the short time period as mandated by the Commission.”
The letter sent by attorney Jose Young on behalf of the PEP stated that the Notice issued under Form No. 35 election rule 4(1)(a) indicated that the returning officer for the district would examine and decide on the validity of the nomination papers of candidates on January 10, 2022, and nomination day will be on January 17, 2022, for the Debe South bye-election.
Young wrote that under the law, “every writ of election shall specify the date of the nomination of candidates being not less than 14 days after the day of issue of the writ.”
He said that to determine if this calculation was correct, he spoke to someone who identified herself as the Chief Elections Officer and was informed that the Writ of Election was issued by the President on January 3, 2022.
Young said he requested a copy of the Writ but was told that it could not be shared with him and that it was not published.
He said, “Our client is naturally quite shocked and questions why such an important document should be shrouded in secrecy at this time of the evolution of our political process and democracy.
“Our client is of the view that this document, as well as any other that is part of any election, should be transparent, accountable and available for public scrutiny.”
He said that PEP is complaining that the time afforded by the EBC for the nomination process is unreasonable in the present circumstances of Covid-19.
The PEP has given the EBC until 1 pm on Monday to respond or it will take the matter to court.
The bye-election was called after the death last year of Purshottam Singh who was the United National Congress (UNC) Debe South councillor.
The People’s National Movement and the UNC have announced as their candidates Judy Sookdeo and Khemraj Seecharan respectively.
