Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

For­mer at­tor­ney gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan, SC, and for­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young are set to go head-to-head in elec­tion pe­ti­tions re­lat­ed to last year’s gen­er­al elec­tions in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

Ram­lo­gan and Young made their first ap­pear­ance be­fore the coun­try’s High Court in Kingstown on Wednes­day, as pe­ti­tions filed by the now-Op­po­si­tion Unit­ed Labour Par­ty (ULP), led by for­mer prime min­is­ter Ralph Gon­za­les, came up for case man­age­ment.

In the pe­ti­tions, the ULP, rep­re­sent­ed by Young, is chal­leng­ing the el­i­gi­bil­i­ty of Prime Min­is­ter God­win Fri­day and For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dwight Bram­ble to con­test the No­vem­ber 27, 2025, gen­er­al elec­tion.

The poll end­ed in a land­slide for Fri­day and his New De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (NDP), who se­cured 14 of 15 seats. Gon­za­les re­tained his North Cen­tral Wind­ward seat while serv­ing as ULP leader.

The ULP ar­gues that Fri­day and Bram­ble’s Cana­di­an cit­i­zen­ship dis­qual­i­fied them from serv­ing in Par­lia­ment, de­spite Fri­day hav­ing served as an MP since 2001 and Bram­ble se­cur­ing a sec­ond five-year term in the re­cent elec­tion. Ques­tions are ex­pect­ed to be raised over the ULP’s de­lay in chal­leng­ing their el­i­gi­bil­i­ty, giv­en their pri­or un­chal­lenged par­tic­i­pa­tion in past elec­tions.

Speak­ing to me­dia af­ter the hear­ing, Ram­lo­gan, rep­re­sent­ing the NDP and who has led sim­i­lar elec­tion pe­ti­tions across the re­gion—in­clud­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go for the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC)—ex­pressed con­fi­dence in his client’s de­fence.

“The man­date giv­en to the new­ly elect­ed prime min­is­ter is over­whelm­ing, and this is an at­tempt by the pe­ti­tion­ers to ef­fect change oth­er­wise than by the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process,” Ram­lo­gan said.

“The man­date is such that we are ex­treme­ly con­fi­dent these elec­tion pe­ti­tions will be dealt with swift­ly and will re­ceive the due care and at­ten­tion they de­serve. But as you can see from the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter and the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al’s faces, they don’t look too wor­ried or trou­bled by it,” he added.

In a sep­a­rate in­ter­view, Young said the pe­ti­tion raised a sig­nif­i­cant le­gal is­sue, which, once de­ter­mined, could clar­i­fy the elec­toral process in the coun­try.

“This mat­ter for Vin­cen­tians is a se­ri­ous one. The court is tasked with in­ter­pret­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­vi­sions re­gard­ing qual­i­fi­ca­tions or dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tions to stand as a can­di­date,” Young said.

“It is im­por­tant be­cause it will set a prece­dent and in­ter­pret the dis­qual­i­fi­ca­tion pro­vi­sions of the St Vin­cent and the Grenadines Con­sti­tu­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cern­ing can­di­dates with Cana­di­an cit­i­zen­ship and their el­i­gi­bil­i­ty to run in elec­tions,” he added.

Young, who re­turned to pri­vate prac­tice af­ter serv­ing two terms in Cab­i­net and a brief stint as prime min­is­ter be­fore los­ing last April’s gen­er­al elec­tion to then-op­po­si­tion leader and cur­rent Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, con­tin­ues to serve as Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP.

The NDP is al­so rep­re­sent­ed by Vishaal Siewsaran, Ganesh Sa­roop of Free­dom Law Cham­bers, and British bar­ris­ter Kate Tem­ple-Mabe.

The next case man­age­ment hear­ing is sched­uled for May 19, with the tri­al set for Ju­ly 28–30.