APP leader puts plan to sue over election issues on pause

Leader of the Alliance Party for Progress (APP) Bishop Joseph Atherley has suspended his proposal to file legal action over either the timing of the January 19 general election or the lack of provisions for COVID-19-positive eligible voters to cast their ballots.

Bishop Atherley, who on Wednesday called on other opposition parties to join him in taking the Mia Mottley administration to court, said on Friday that with little time left before polling day, and having not heard from the other parties, he needed to focus on helping his candidates in the field.

While maintaining that the decision to call an election in the middle of a pandemic and failure to facilitate voting by persons in isolation and quarantine still merited a legal challenge, the former Leader of the Opposition said he would put the planned suit on hold.

“I am still reinforced in my view that this action can be challenged. I asked the other parties publicly to give an indication that they will be willing to join us in challenging it. With the little time that we have left, all that is to secure this campaign is my support for my candidates,” he said.

“I would like to join with others [to challenge] if they are of that disposition, but it does not seem that they are because I haven’t heard any information from any of them,” the APP leader told Barbados TODAY.

However, Bishop Atherley said he would be willing to revisit the proposal if the others were to come on board before Election Day.

Leader of Solutions Barbados Grenville Phillips ll said during an interview with Barbados TODAY on Thursday, that once the facts related to the planned court action and the basis on which it is being made are firmly established, his party had no difficulty joining the suit.

But he insisted that the parties which intend to join the action must first meet and agree on the grounds and then take the case to President Dame Sandra Mason for her direction.

Bishop Atherley’s call for court action was in response to Chairman of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Leslie Haynes, QC saying that persons who were diagnosed with COVID-19 could not vote.

The APP leader said if legal action was not taken to either force authorities to make provisions for COVID-19 patients to vote, or delay the polls, thousands of eligible voters would be “robbed” of their franchise.

Government authorities have explained that the current COVID-19 protocols and directives make it illegal for patients to break home isolation or quarantine, so they would not be allowed to leave to vote.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb