Mayor Moya-Flowers challenges U.D.P. in court
While Patrick Faber’s case was the result of perhaps immature behavior four years ago, Zenaida Moya Flowers is turning to the courts to save her seat in the UDP. On October third, she was removed from her party’s national executive, merely two days after she was criminally charged with twenty-two counts of Uttering a False Document and two counts of Failure to Comply with City Council Regulations for issuing payments greater than fifty dollars in cash. So in a rare move she is suing U.D.P. Chairman, Doug Singh, the Secretary General, Phillipa Griffith Bailey, and the members of the U.D.P.’s National Party Council challenging the validity of the meeting that decided her removal. This morning she came before Justice Minette Hafiz Bertram Supreme Court Judge, along with her attorneys Elson Kaseke and Godfrey Smith. The matter was adjourned after the U.D.P.’s attorney Michael Young requested time to file another affidavit in response to the mayor’s case. The Mayor herself did not have any comments either before or after her appearance in court but she did look at ease. Her defense attorney, Godfrey Smith, offered comments as did attorney for the U.D.P., Michael Young.
Michael Young, Attorney for U.D.P.
“The position is, and I have indicated to the court, that in relation to the matters which are subject to the application, we will not do anything to undermine the fair trial of this matter and the party will abide by that.”
Godfrey Smith, Attorney for Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers
“You heard the lawyers on the side give an undertaking to the court that nothing will be done in relations to this matter by the National Party Council or the Central Executive. The matter is adjourned until November twelfth. In the meantime, they have given an undertaking that nothing will be done in relation to our client.”
Michael Young
“A political party is like a family but as a matter of general law and principle, when you’re a member of an association and you feel that you have been dealt with unlawfully in relation to your membership in that association or any part of it, the law gives you the right to go to court and complain. But certainly, the type of association that a political party is, it’s really repugnant to have interventions, so to speak, in the internal affairs of that party. But we are going to deal with this according to and under the law.”
Moya is challenging that the decision to expel her was done in breach of her right to natural justice. In addition she is seeking a declaration to re-instate her as a member of the National Party Council. The clock has stopped ticking in the countdown to the Mayor’s expulsion until the court decides on November twelfth. Young is joined by attorney Deanne Barrow.
