The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will hear a Notice of Application for “Special Leave to appeal from Dominica an Election Petition matter of 2019 which was thrown out by the High Court and upheld by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC).
The issue at hand is “whether the Court of Appeal had the jurisdiction to entertain appeals against the decision of the High Court judge striking out elections petition for not disclosing a cause of action.”
According to the CCJ, “the determination of this issue turns on whether the High Court judge’s order was final or interlocutory.”
The matter surfaced following the December 2019 general elections in Dominica, in which the Dominica Labour Party (DLP)emerged victorious.
The following year, January 2020, the UWP filed election petitions alleging several irregularities in the election process and sought to have the court overturn the results in St. Joseph, Mahaut, Morne Jaune, La Plaine, Castle Bruce, Salybia, Roseau Valley, Roseau Central, Roseau South, and Wesley constituencies.
The government, in turn, filed applications to strike out the petitions on the basis, inter alia, that the petitions did not disclose causes of action against them and were abusing the process of the court.
Guyanese-born Grenadian base High Court Judge Raulston Glasgow dismissed, the application stating that “the election petitions were struck out on the basis that the petitions lacked the necessary details or specificity to disclose causes of action against any of the respondents.”
The High Court Judge also awarded costs to the respondents in the sum of $5,000 stating that the complaints could have been presented under a single or at the most, two petitions and deemed the ten, a “waste paper, time, and money to respond to all ten petitioners which were unnecessary.” His decision was upheld by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal (May 2021).
Zahidha James the attorney for the petitioners took the matter to the CCJ and in handing down an opposing view, ruled that the court “does have jurisdiction to hear the matter” and set February 23, 2022, as the date for the hearing.
This judgement was further appealed to the highest appeal court for Dominica, the CCJ, who in a December 9, ruling by Justice A Saunders, PCCJ, Justice J Wit, JCCJ and Justice W Anderson, JCCJ, said the Court has the jurisdiction to entertain the Notice of Application for Special Leave to Appeal.