High Court Cannot Stop Elections! PM Mottley Responds To Injunction

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is showing no fear nor anxiety in the face of an injunction being filed in court against the country’s new president and attorney general in a last-minute attempt to stall elections set for tomorrow, January 19, 2022.

Receiving the news last evening of the filing, on the political platform in Pie Corner, St Lucy, the leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) and candidate for St Michael North East told the audience:

“What has happened is that a case has been filed and the case is called Philip Nathaniel Catlyn and Sandra Prunella Mason (First defendant), the Attorney General (Second defendant). The case has been filed for an urgent injunction to call off the elections on Wednesday.”

Saying that she believes the inspiration behind this move lies with the opposition “who is not ready,” she asked:

“Whyyyy? Whyyyyy? WHY? Because they know they are losing and they’re now trying everything to stop you from returning the Barbados Labour Party to government and allowing us to continue the mission of transformation.”

Despite saying “I will not say much,” the prime minister went on to explain why she is not shaking in her shoes at this latest effort.

“The case law, I’m no Attorney General (AG) now, but I used to be one and my memory ain’t short and Dale [Marshall] knows and I know that there is case law in the Commonwealth Caribbean that makes it absolutely clear that the High Court has no jurisdiction to suspend or to stop any election once the writ is issued, and that the only court that can have anything to do at all with an election is a special election court, and the only jurisdiction it has is to determine what happened in the election, so the election would have to happen before the election court can pass and render a judgement.

“And we are not talking about case law in the US or in a foreign, foreign, foreign place. We’re talking about case law in CARICOM, in the Caribbean,” she asserted.