ILP challenges UNC candidate

The ILP yesterday submitted an application for leave to file judicial review regarding the legitimacy of UNC candidate, Adrian Ali, contesting the Munroe Road/Caroni Savannah electoral district on the Chaguanas Borough Corporation in Monday’s local elections. They are contending he lives outside of the area and thereby does not meet the criteria for candidacy.

The application was filed and will be heard in the San Fernando High Court this morning for a judge to determine whether it is worthy of pursuing.

Asked how confident she was about a favourable court ruling, especially when the elections are only three days away, attorney Rekha Ramjit, the ILP’s political leader, said, “I can’t say exactly how the court is going to rule, we have to wait and see. We have made the application and we could only make the applications because we believe we have good grounds. However, it is a matter for a judge to decide and I don’t want to preempt what the judge has to say.

I do not want to claim victory before it is given or loss before it is given. I don’t want to do any of those things, I want the law to do those things.” Ramjit said the ILP’s first course of action was to write to the Elections and Boundaries Commission about the matter last Friday, but they received no response.

The ILP’s candidate for the Munroe Road/ Caroni Savannah electoral district is incumbent Simeon Mahabir, the sole representative for the party on the Chaguanas Borough Corporation. In 2013, he alleged that he turned down a $5 million bribe offered by the UNC to join their ranks.