In the past two months - we've reported on election petitions many times. But that was all the preparatory work - leading up to today when the actual petitions were argued in the Supreme Court. Now, bear in mind this is unfamiliar territory; only once or twice before have election petitions been fully argued in court - most times they are thrown out at the preliminary stage.
So, first up was the Orlando "Landy" Habet's petition against Cayo Northeast Area Rep., Elvin Penner.
As we reported, Habet's petition against Penner is on the grounds that he bribed a majority of the new voters by paying for their naturalization papers to become Belizeans. He also alleged that Penner engaged in other corrupt practices to win the election.
When the preliminary hearing for the petition leave was heard, Attorney Rodwell Williams dealt their case a major blow when he successfully argued to have the bribery struck out.
They ended up getting the election petition granted on the very slim ground that the Returning Officer,Jose Castellanos, refused to grant a recount in spite of the fact that Penner defeated Habet by 17 votes and there were 37 spoilt ballots.
Well, Habet's attorneys, Said Musa, Anthony Sylvester, and Kevin Arthurs, came back to court to apply for leave to appeal Justice Bertram's decision to strike out the bribery grounds. They believe that Bertram's interpretation of the law which led her to rule against the bribery was erroneous.
Once again, they were unsuccessful after Justice Bertram refused the appeal on the grounds that she didn't have the jurisdiction to grant it.
We spoke to both sides outside of the courtroom about the points they made today.
Here's what they told us:
Rodwell Williams - Attorney for Elvin Penner
"Orlando Habet applied for leave of the court to appeal against the decision of the judge to strike out and refuse them leave to file a petition against Penner and others on grounds alleged corrupt practices. That application was refused, so they sought leave of the court today for permission to appeal that order, and the court refused their permission to that appeal. So, they have no permission to appeal because the court refused them that permission a while ago."
Delani Bain - Channel 5 News
"Can you explain why it was refused?"
Rodwell Williams
"Well, Section 86 (3) of our Constitution says that the question of the grant or refusal of leave to bring an election petition is not to be - there is no right of appeal from it. So, the language 86 (3) actually says that there is no appeal from the determination of the trial judge on the question of the grant or refusal of leave to bring the petition. And in the face of that, they, nonetheless, applied to be given leave, and the court said that it is faced with a jurisdictional hurdle, and that it cannot grant leave. So the leave was refused. If there is a decision from the court on the hearing of an election petition, you can only appeal as far as the Court of Appeal, and only on a point of law, nothing else. You can't go beyond the Court of Appeal, and the idea is that you ought not to have questions concerning election petitions hanging over the public, the electorate, and the country indefinitely while you ditter around trying to create a case where you have none."
Said Musa - Attorney for Orlando "Landy" Habet
"We had applied to the court for leave to appeal the court's decision in the Orlando Habet matter when she struck out the allegations of bribery and all that. The court took the position today that it does not have jurisdiction to grant the leave, and that we should basically go straight to the Court of Appeal. I raised the matter as to the time factor, but as it happens, we also did file a notice of appeal to the Court of Appeal in any event."
Daniel Ortiz
"So, what happens with the trial on the grounds of the recount? What's the status with that?"
Said Musa
"Well, the court has given us leave to proceed with that petition, but as you mentioned just now, that too is being challenged by the other side, and that matter will be heard sometime next week."
As noted in the interview, Habet's attorneys don't have leave to appeal from Justice Bertram, but they are going to the Appeal Court directly to argue their case in the hopes that the Court will still hear the matter.
Also, the recount aspect of the election petition is still in danger of being dismissed if Habet's attorneys don't file a motion in time to stay a strike out application, which has already been filed.
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