Cpl Eldon Arzu Back in Court Attempting to Overturn Election Results of Police Association
Corporal Eldon Arzu is before the courts again attempting to overturn the results of the recently elected executive of the Police Association. Those elections concluded two weeks ago and Sergeant Jane Usher emerged as the new president. But Arzu is challenging the results, saying that he would have been re-elected if the Commissioner of Police did not extend the deadline for nominations past November of last year. ComPol Chester Williams says the challenge as frivolous. Here is News Five’s Duane Moody.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The contention between former President of the Police Association, Eldon Arzu and ComPol Chester Williams is playing out once again before the court in a separate case. This time, Arzu is claiming that if it were not for the Commissioner extending the deadline for nominations, he and his slate would have been endorsed last year. Elections were due in January, but did not happen until two weeks ago, on June seventeenth, with Sergeant Jane Usher and her team secured the most votes. Prior to the election, attorney Nazira Myles, on behalf of Corporal Arzu, filed an application for judicial review before Supreme Court Justice Sonya Young.
Nazira Myles
Nazira Myles, Attorney for Corporal Eldon Arzu
“Our client’s position has always been—and we have correspondence to that effect—that he was nominated from the fifteenth of November, which makes it legal. So, really, he and his slate should have been declared the central board. Thereafter, the extension kept taking place for nomination by extensions by the Commissioner of Police. He has correspondences to the scrutinizing officer, to the Commissioner of Police, to the Minister of National Security, where he is asking on what basis this election is going to take place. And in a specific correspondence, he makes it known that he is accepting the nomination, but his participation in the election depends on an explanation on what legality is being done.”
Reporter
“Is there any provision under the law for the extensions that the commissioner kept making?”
Nazira Myles
“Our position is that there is none.”
Although they have already taken office, the legal move is to have the Supreme Court stop the installation of Sergeant Usher and her team as the new executive of the association. According to Myles, the election was done illegally and the results are null and void and in contravention of the Police Act.
Nazira Myles
“We base our application on the law itself. The Police Act has rules that govern the association, and those rules give specific dates by when nominations should be made and specific rules by when the election should take place. And if you read it carefully and you contrast it with when the election took place, and certain actions before the election, in terms of getting certain officers in the nomination slate, it was not done legally.”
In responding to an allegation that he manipulated the process for an outcome that would be favourable to him, ComPol Chester Williams says that Corporal Arzu is upset because he did not win.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“I am not going to say much because the matter is indeed before the court. I will just say that this is not a matter of the police association and the commissioner; it is a matter of Corporal Arzu. For me, the rank and file that falls within the scope of the Police Association have decided who they want to represent them in the next central board which has been appointed. We were in a state of stalemate for a whole year; the association did nothing. We have a number of police officers out there who have a number of welfare issues that need to be addressed. I want to see the association begin to work for the people that elected them. That is more important to me. And with that, I believe that the application by Mister Arzu is frivolous and vexatious because had he won the election, there would have been no claim; he would be celebrating.”
Arzu’s attorney says alleges that ComPol Williams has had biases against her client.
Nazira Myles
“Our position is from the inception, even the other judicial claim we have against the commissioner, is that bias has always been showed against our client and we maintain that even now. It’s our position and we have document that shows that there was no nomination by Officer Usher or her slate at the time that it should have been done yet extensions keep being given and now she is the only other slate which is contesting my client.”
Chester Williams
“Nomination for the police association is normally by November fifteenth of every year. If I were to go by the rules, because the regulation states that nominations are to go to the Commissioner of Police, to be submitted to the Commissioner of Police, November fifteenth last year, the only nomination I had was from Sergeant Jane Usher and Sergeant Hyde. So if I were to go by the rules, then they would have been endorsed as the new central board. I got no nomination from Corporal Arzu until March this year. So contrary to what his application is saying that is not what happened.”
The case goes back to court on July ninth. Duane Moody for News Five.
