PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled in favour of the main opposition United National Congress (UNC) that challenged the decision of the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) to extend the voting time during the September 7 general election.

The UNC, the majority partner in the People’s Partnership government, lost the election by a 23-18 margin to the now ruling People’s National Movement (PNM).

In a split decision, the three-member Appeal Court disagreed with the appeal filed by the EBC and the six members of the PNM that High Court judge, Justice Mira Dean-Armorer, was wrong to give leave to the opposition party to challenge the results in six of the 41 constituencies.

Former attorney general Anand Ramlogan described the judgement as “illuminating, powerful and very incisive.

“It is not very often there is a dissenting judgement from the Honourable Chief Justice, but it augurs well for the strengthen, independence and fairness of our judicial system that we can have such a strong court and we can have a judgement in a matter like this with robust intellectual discourse emanating from the lips of all three independent judges”.

Ramlogan said the UNC was prepared to “respect the judgement of the court whichever way it went and that was indicated even before today.

“The rule of law, democracy and the constitution have triumphed today. We took a lot of licks from our colleagues from the opposite side, the media, the political leader of the United National Congress, Kamla Persad Bissessar, herself took quite a beating for pursuing these election petitions,” he added.

UNC Deputy Leader Dr Roodal Moonilal, who is challenging Persad Bissessar for the leadership of the party, said the ruling “is an important moment for us because it means that some substantive issues or law can be aired in a full trial of the court and I look forward to that full trial.

Speaking on radio here, Moonilal — who is in a three-way contest for the leadership — said that the ruling now allows for the UNC to file the substantive petitions challenging the outcome of the results in the six constituencies after the party claimed it had been put at a disadvantage by the decision to the EBC to extend the voting period by one hour due to the inclement weather on voting day.

“I look forward to that I think there are important issues of law involved and the politics as well,” Moonilal told radio audiences.

The appeal court judges had at the end of hearing arguments last month said they would not be “capriciously” putting Trinidad and Tobago through another election.

Justice Ivor Archie, who voted in support of appeal, said then there must be some “finality” and “closure” as to whether the EBC acted legally when it extended by one hour, the voting time for the general election.

The two other judges hearing the appeal were Justices Peter Jamadar and Allan Mendoca.

The EBC and the PNM had called on the Court of Appeal to declare that petitions filed challenging the results of the elections in the so-called six marginal constituencies were null and void.

Justice Dean-Armorer had on September 18 given the UNC leave to file the petitions based on the argument that the EBC had no power to extend the voting time due to inclement weather.

The attorneys for the EBC and the PNM said that the petitions were “hopeless” and called on the Appeal Court to dismiss the matter.

However in his arguments, British Queen Counsel, Timothy Strake, argued that by extending the polls by an hour, the EBC flagrantly disregarded the Election Rules set out by the Parliament.

“Parliament says the polls must open from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm,” he said, insisting that the EBC was wrong.

“There is no discretion in the adherence of the rules. Rules are to be followed to the letter.”