Hochoy: Today’s election still illegal

“Nowhere can you pass a validation act to validate the breach of a law. When you breach a law, you stand the consequences.

I am sure that some group, some individuals, or some groups of individuals will challenge it in the court. It has serious constitutional implications,” he said.

Charles, a former THA chief secretary and leader of The Platform of Truth (TPT) told Newsday yesterday he heard that the Parliament validated a day for the elections, but maintained that today’s election date contravenes Section 33 of the Act because it is being held 20 days from Nomination Day to election day, and not the 21 days stipulated by law.

“They have compounded an error. You can pass a law to validate the action of somebody, but you cannot pass a law to validate a breach of a law,” he said.

The only way out of the mistake, he said, “was for them to go to Parliament, and extend the day by one day. Make it the 24th and that would have corrected the breach.” He continued, “Had they done so they would not have breached the Act.

I thought that is what they were going to do.” Charles, who made public the error, said that from the inception, he warned that if the election was not postponed or extended by a day, anyone could have challenged it because their constitutional rights were being affected.

Even putting it off for a day, he said, could have been challenged because there are political parties in Tobago that could not take part in the elections once they recognised that the law was breached.

The TPT and the Tobago Liberation Movement are not involved in the elections, he said, because of the breach.