The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will on Thursday, December 10, 2020, hear arguments from lawyers in the 2014 Treating Election case.
Mervin John Baptiste, Antoine Defoe, and Edincot St. Valle filed complaints against all 15 elected candidates of the Dominica Labour Party (DLP) after the 2014 general election claiming they were involved in “treating” leading up to the election; which the DLP won 15-6 against the United Workers Party (UWP).
The complainants cited two concerts put on by the DLP, featuring international acts, Donnie McClurkin and Morgan Heritage, as acts of treating meant to corruptly influence the outcome of the election. The high court ruled that the magistrate did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter but in a 2-1 majority decision, the ECSC dismissed the high court’s decision and remitted the matter back to the high court saying it had jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Anthony Astaphan SC the lawyer representing the DLP candidates applied for permission from the Court of Appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) in the application for leave to appeal the decision on the jurisdiction of the Magistrate’s court to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
That permission was granted by the ECSC.
According to Astaphan SC, they argued that there was a right to appeal and alternatively because that appeal raised issues of great public importance concerning the election jurisdiction of the court and public policy.
Cara Shillingford is representing Mervin John Baptiste et al in the matter.