Residents challenge Orealla/Siparuta election

Some residents of the Amerindian community of Orealla/Siparuta are alleging that recent elections for Chairman and Councillors for the village were irregular and illegal and are calling for an investigation and fresh elections.

They are prepared to go to the High Court if fresh elections are not held, according to their legal representative, Khemraj Ramjattan. The attorney earlier this month dispatched a letter to Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai regarding the situation. It is not clear what has happened since and the minister was not available when this newspaper contacted her office several times.

Ramjattan, in his letter said that he was visited by the residents at his Chambers on April 30 and they expressed their concerns about the elections held on April 28, which they felt were irregular and illegal. He said that in their and his opinions, the elections were held in breach of many of the rules provided under the Amerindian Act. He added that the deeming of resident John King, as ineligible to contest for the chairmanship on election day when on nomination day (April 27), he was ruled eligible, was enough to vitiate the said elections and good reason to hold fresh elections.

Ramjattan listed several requirements which are supposed to be in place for the elections but were not. Further, he said, on nomination day, King and incumbent chairman McLean Devoir were nominated and upheld as eligible contestants for the Chairman/Toshao position and even though Devoir had objected to King on the grounds that he was not resident in Orealla, King defended his status and it was openly determined and publicly declared that he was eligible.

Chairman of Region Six, Zulficar Mustapha was present and performed the function of Returning Officer.
The following day, however, he said, a regional officer was there and performed the function of Returning Officer to conduct the Orealla end of the elections and after objections by Devoir’s camp, he ruled King ineligible. Ramjattan said the elections ballot paper was then shared out and it did not contain King’s name. “This obviously meant that the whole arrangement was to exclude John King as a contestant. Further, it meant also that he and his team of councillors who had validly wanted to compete were lied to when they were told about him being a valid and eligible candidate and how his name will be on the candidate’s list on the previous nomination day,” he declared.
He said after unsuccessfully clamouring for King to be registered, the team walked out.

The attorney, in his letter said that King was duly nominated and according to the rules was eligible for election as Toshao under the Act. He urged the minister to avoid swearing in the Devoir team, which was declared winners of the elections, and order an investigation and thereafter fresh elections. “The citizens of Orealla and Siparuta want nothing less and it must not be conducted by these highly partisan regional officials who breached various timelines and even unlawfully misinterpreted/misapplied the eligibility provision. If this is not done, I will be forced to institute legal proceedings in the High Court of the rectification of this illegality,” Ramjattan declared.