Yvonne Webb

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar said there was a strong case that the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion act­ed il­le­gal­ly in the Sep­tem­ber 7 gen­er­al elec­tion by ex­tend­ing the vot­ing time by one hour in Trinidad and is now ques­tion­ing the le­git­i­ma­cy of the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Gov­ern­ment.

Speak­ing at a Team UNC plat­form at Three Roads Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, Freeport, on Mon­day night, hours af­ter the Ap­peal Court rul­ing on the elec­tion pe­ti­tions, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the rul­ing was a vic­to­ry and she was now plac­ing the faith of the par­ty in the rule of law and in the Ju­di­cia­ry of T&T.

"To­day records a great vic­to­ry for the UNC. To­day...to­day, the Court of Ap­peal, the ma­jor­i­ty of the Court of Ap­peal, agreed that our elec­tion pe­ti­tions chal­leng­ing the re­sult of the gen­er­al elec­tion are valid and should be heard in the courts."

She told sup­port­ers while there was a strong case that the EBC act­ed il­le­gal­ly, she need­ed their help to come for­ward with any in­for­ma­tion or knowl­edge of what tran­spired.

"Come for­ward and let your voic­es be heard, so that we can con­tin­ue to work on your be­half to show that the EBC act­ed il­le­gal­ly, but we need your help.

"Yes, we have some of the ev­i­dence in­side but I am sure through­out the length and breadth of this coun­try, there are those who would have suf­fered a sim­i­lar fate, who were turned away," she said.

As she seeks an­oth­er term as leader of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) and as an al­ter­na­tive to head the Gov­ern­ment, Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so ques­tioned whether the present day Gov­ern­ment of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley was fit to be in pow­er, giv­en what had tran­spired.

"We have to ques­tion the le­git­i­ma­cy of the Gov­ern­ment and from now on we must all sing from the same line, from the same words, from the same page, from the same hymn book that this Gov­ern­ment came in­to of­fice and does not have the le­git­i­ma­cy that a Gov­ern­ment should have. The le­git­i­ma­cy of the Gov­ern­ment is un­der ques­tion," she said.

Speak­ing about the three court cas­es brought against the EBC, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said in ad­di­tion to the elec­tion pe­ti­tions, there was an­oth­er con­sti­tu­tion­al mo­tion filed by the peo­ple of To­ba­go, in which they were al­leg­ing that their rights un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion were breached be­cause there was dif­fer­ent un­equal treat­ment for Trinidad and dif­fer­ent un­equal treat­ment for To­ba­go.

The one-hour vot­ing ex­ten­sion was ap­plied to Trinidad on­ly be­cause of the in­clement weath­er.

There was an­oth­er mat­ter be­fore the courts, she said, brought by right-think­ing cit­i­zens to up­hold the Con­sti­tu­tion and that was known as a ju­di­cial re­view com­pe­ti­tion against the EBC, about its ac­tions.

"So, the EBC is be­ing chal­lenged in three dif­fer­ent ac­tions and so we leave it there, be­fore the courts, and in the hands of God," she added.

Speak­ing about her com­peti­tors–Dr Roodal Mooni­lal and Vas­ant Bharath–in the elec­tions, Per­sad-Bisses­sar not­ed that while they were chal­leng­ing her lead­er­ship they were al­so at­tack­ing the par­ty.

"I re­mind them that our great par­ty won over 340,000 votes. We have this bat­tle in the UNC but we must re­mem­ber that the re­al en­e­my is not the UNC but the PNM.

"It hurts me when I see lined up against me are men and women I trust­ed. Men and women I gave great po­si­tions to. I brought them in and they did not sup­port me in the elec­tions in 2010. Dr Mooni­lal, Dr Gopeesingh, Vas­ant Bharath, they cam­paigned on a dif­fer­ent theme, just as they are do­ing to­day," she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was not wor­ried be­cause in spite of the chal­lenge in 2010 she pre­vailed and ex­pect­ed a sim­i­lar re­sult come Sat­ur­day.

"Well, as God would have it, I won our par­ty elec­tions in 2010, she added.