Yolanda Schakron in Supreme Court for bye-election battle

Yolanda Schakron

Last Friday, P.U.P. Attorney Lisa Shoman was in the Supreme Court to file an application for leave to present an Election Petition by Yolanda Schakron. The P.U.P. and Schakron were in court today, before Chief Justice, Kenneth Benjamin. The case the P.U.P. are presenting is that the Retuning Officer, Noreen Fairweather did not have the legal capacity to make the determination to disqualify  Schakron from being nominated as a candidate to contest the General Elections in the Lake I Constituency. Shoman tells us more about their day in court.

Lisa Shoman, Attorney

“Under the constitution, you have to ask for leave present an election petition, so that is what the hearing was about today. And the threshold, the test that you have to pass, in order to satisfy the court that you are permitted to bring an election petition, is that there is an adequate case and we try to demonstrate to the court, that only do we believe there is an adequate case; there is an adequate case with a realistic prospect of success. Based on what our case is, which is that, section 81 of the third schedule of the Representation of the People Act, only gives the nominating officer, the returning officer, the power to inquire into the nomination paper and nothing more.”

Reporter

Lisa Shoman

“But ma’am wouldn’t you agree, that Justice Legal has already given a decision, a determination in that?”

Lisa Shoman

“No, I don’t agree because the matter before Justice Legal one, for constitutional relief under Section 20 of the Constitution and two,   contained different parties, it was Yolanda Schakron and Moses Sulph in that case, and in this case it is Yolanda Schakron and Wilma Whyte Munnings and Yolanda Schakron and Wilma Whyte Munnings in this case, are presenting the election petition. When the matter was heard before Justice Legal, there was no election petition that could be ask for. As you can see, we did not ask for leave in that case, because it was not necessary, so it’s not the same thing. We are saying that it is a different matter, it may involve overlap of different issue, but it is not the same thing.”

Shoman says that if the ruling doesn’t swing in their favor, they will subsequently review what is handed down and will make a decision according to the decisions of the court.