Se­nior Coun­sel Seenath Jairam was yes­ter­day elect­ed Law As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent, in an elec­tion which reg­is­tered one of the largest vot­er turnouts in the as­so­ci­a­tion's his­to­ry. Jairam, a for­mer mem­ber of the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion and High Court judge re­ceived 138 votes with his clos­est com­peti­tor Stan­ley Mar­cus, SC, re­ceiv­ing 113.

Out­spo­ken Se­nior Coun­sel Is­rael Khan, who was the first can­di­date to an­nounce his in­ten­tion to run in the elec­tions, placed third with a to­tal of 86 votes. In an in­ter­view af­ter the elec­tions which were held at the Hall of Jus­tice, Knox Street, Port-of-Spain, Jairam said his first project as pres­i­dent is to es­tab­lish stricter ac­count­ing meth­ods for the as­so­ci­a­tion's funds.

Jairam said: "I in­tend to make sure there are rigid con­trols, to en­sure the funds are prop­er­ly ac­count­ed for, but in any event from what I have heard to­day I am en­cour­aged that prop­er sys­tems have al­ready been put in place." In May, the as­so­ci­a­tion's pres­i­dent Dana See­ta­hal, SC, re­signed from the post, as con­tention emerged over funds of more than $200,000 which was found to be miss­ing from the as­so­ci­a­tion's ac­counts. Up to late yes­ter­day, the full re­sults of the elec­tions were not avail­able as they were be­ing tal­lied un­der the su­per­vi­sion of re­turn­ing of­fi­cer Gillian Lucky.