Resh­ma Ra­goonath

A le­gal bat­tle over the lead­er­ship of the Agri­cul­tur­al So­ci­ety of Trinidad and To­ba­go has erupt­ed. This af­ter the So­ci­ety's Vice Pres­i­dent Jen­son Alexan­der se­cured an in­ter­im in­junc­tion pre­vent­ing Pres­i­dent Dhanoo Sookoo and her man­age­ment com­mit­tee from con­duct­ing in­ter­nal elec­tions which were sched­uled for Wednes­day. Sookoo, flanked by mem­bers of var­i­ous farm­ers' as­so­ci­a­tions, ap­peared un­fazed as she emerged from the San Fer­nan­do Supreme Court on Thurs­day af­ter the mat­ter was heard be­fore Civ­il Court judge De­ven­dra Ram­per­sad. Sookoo told re­porters that on Wednes­day she was hand­ed an in­junc­tion "pre­vent­ing the farm­ers of this coun­try from ex­er­cis­ing their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right as to who they want to rep­re­sent them. So this morn­ing (Thurs­day) I ap­peared on be­half of the farm­ers of Trinidad and To­ba­go."

Alexan­der, to­geth­er with Kr­ishen­dath Sook­nanan, through at­tor­ney Kem­ra­jh Har­rikissoon, filed for ju­di­cial re­view of Sookoo's de­ci­sion to call in­ter­nal elec­tions. They claim that the hold­ing of elec­tions is il­le­gal and/or unau­tho­rised and con­trary to the law. Sookoo, who had the sup­port of mem­bers of the Or­ange Grove Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, Tabaquite/Williamsville, South­ern/Siparia and Va­len­cia farm­ers, as well as Pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Agri­cul­ture so­ci­ety, said: "We are here to let these two gen­tle­men know that the rights of the farm­ers will not be com­pro­mised in any­way." On Fri­day, when the mat­ter was called, Ram­per­sad gave di­rec­tions that Sookoo, who is rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Jagdeo Singh and Alvin Ram­roop, file af­fi­davits by Au­gust 22. Alexan­der and Sook­nanan have un­til Sep­tem­ber 15 to re­spond.

The mat­ter was ad­journed to Sep­tem­ber 30. Alexan­der and Sook­nanan are seek­ing a de­c­la­ra­tion that the ac­tions of Sookoo or the So­ci­ety to call elec­tions is il­le­gal/unau­tho­rised/con­trary to law and null or void and of no ef­fect. They are seek­ing an or­der to quash Sookoo's de­ci­sion to hold elec­tions. The men are seek­ing an or­der of man­damus di­rect­ing Sookoo to act in ac­cor­dance with the rules that gov­ern the so­ci­ety and the Agri­cul­tur­al So­ci­ety Act Chap­ter 63:01, sec­tions 7 and 8 which stip­u­lates the com­po­si­tion of the So­ci­ety's man­age­ment com­mit­tee. Sookoo said a de­ci­sion was tak­en at the So­ci­ety's Month­ly gen­er­al meet­ing in May for elec­tions to be held on Ju­ly 27. How­ev­er, Alexan­der and Sook­nanan claim this de­ci­sion is con­trary to the rules gov­ern­ing the So­ci­ety's op­er­a­tions.