KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Former speaker, Jomo Sanga Thomas, says he does not regard the two petitions filed in the High Court challenging the nomination of Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday and his Foreign Affairs Minister, Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble, as candidates for the November 27 general elections last year as ” frivolous “.
Speaking on his weekly radio programme, Thomas, an attorney and social commentator, told listeners that he agreed with the views of Opposition Leader, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves that the “issue having to do with the interpretation of our Constitution is fundamentally important, that it would quiet all of the talk about who can run and who cannot run for politics in St. Vincent and the Grenadines”.
Thomas said that “until the government, whichever government, moves to change and reword section 26, which says that any Vincentian citizen can run for and be elected to office, that’s not what it says now.
“So it is not a frivolous claim; it is an important constitutional question which would be resolved,” Thomas said.
“I have long said that I think that Prime Minister Friday and parliamentarian Bramble have a case to answer. I have followed the debate closely and read the documents presented. I read cases from across the world — the Falkland Islands, Australia, England, and St. Kitts.
“I am of the considered view that, having read all of those cases, Dr. Friday and parliamentarian Bramble would survive the challenge based on the peculiar nature of our Constitution. But, having said that, I still don’t think it’s frivolous. So I’m not so sure why our prime minister would say it is a frivolous claim.”
Following the first case management last Thursday, Prime Minister Friday, who led his New Democratic Party (NDP) to a convincing 14-1 drubbing of Gonsalves’ Unity Labour Party (ULP) and ending 25 years in opposition, told reporters that the matter was taking up public and court’s time as well as resources.
“The people elected me to do their business, I’m spending two hours in the court here answering a frivolous application,” Friday said.
But Gonsalves, speaking on his weekly radio programme, said the prime minister “was mouthing the word frivolous, but he knows it’s not frivolous…
“He knows that this is a serious matter to be addressed,” Gonsalves said, referring to the 2015 general elections in which the NDP, with Friday as a vice-president, filed petitions and held protests accusing the ULP of stealing the elections.
Gonsalves said that the ULP has no intention of dragging out the current petition, and that the petitioners have advised him that they are moving expeditiously to have the matter dealt with, and that the lawyers have been so instructed.
“And we will have a determination not too long from now, first at the High Court and then whichever side loses, will go to the Court of Appeal, and whatever the Court of Appeal says, that will be it,” Gonsalves said.
Lawyers for the parties in the election petition matter said they were looking forward to the matter being heard.
Former Trinidad and Tobago attorney general, Anand Ramlogan SC, who is leading a team representing Friday and Bramble, described the case management hearing as “an interesting, if not amusing experience.
“The mandate given to the newly elected prime minister is overwhelming, and this is an attempt by the petitioners to effect change, other than by the democratic process,” he said.
But former Trinidad and Tobago prime minister Stuart Young, who is leading the attorneys representing the petitioners, told reporters that the court’s verdict on the issue is very important.
“Well, this matter for Vincentians is a serious matter, and what is being determined by the court really is an interpretation of your constitutional provisions and the qualification, or the disqualification to stand as a candidate for elections.
“So it’s quite an important provision that is finally going to be determined by the court,” Young said, adding that the judge has set “a tight time frame and timeline” that will see the trial taking place on July 28 to 30.
Thomas told radio listeners that Section 25 of the Constitution talks about the qualifications for representatives and senators.
He noted that it states subject to the provisions of section 26 the person shall be qualified to be elected as a representative if, and shall not be qualified unless, (a) he is a Commonwealth citizen of the age of 21 years or older or he has resided in St. Vincent for a period of 12 months immediately before date of his nomination for election or domicile and resident in St. Vincent at that date and then able to speak and understand English you’re not incapacitated by blindness or physical causes.
“So that’s what it says as it relates to 25 — and remember 25 is subject to the provision in 26 — and 26 says no person shall be qualified to be elected or appointed as a representative or senator if he is by virtue of his own act and acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to foreign power. And that’s where the hinge is,” Thomas said.
Thomas said that “is what a lot of these cases have been decided on across the region,” and that if people were listening closely to one of the attorneys representing those who brought the petitions, they would recall him saying that the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Constitution is a little different. There are nuances that they intend to explore.
“The St. Vincent and the Grenadines Constitution has some similarities, but there are also certain differences, so this matter must be determined for the people of St Vincent and the Grenadines,” Young had said immediately following the first case management hearing in Kingstown.
“So there was Mr. Young — the good lawyer that he is — not coming out definitively and making a position one way or the other but was prepared to concede a jump that the Vincentian Constitution is slightly different than some of the constitutions across the region,” Thomas said.
Thomas said that Gonsalves, who is also an attorney, has made heavy weather of the petition case involving former St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzel Douglas, saying that once the court ruled as it did in that case, it is almost certain to rule against Friday and Fitzgerald Bramble.
Thomas, however, said he did “not necessarily agree” with that, adding, “but then again, I am not a constitutional scholar.
“I think the Constitution clearly speaks to who can run as a citizen. There are some nuanced arguments there which I’m sure lawyers who are much more adept in these areas would present to the court,” Thomas added.
He described Justice Gertel Thom as “a highly experienced judge, a highly respected judge not only here but across the region.”
The ULP’s Northern Grenadines candidate in the November 2025 polls, Augustus Carlos Williams, is challenging the nomination of Friday as well as the action of the returning office, Devon Ollivierre, and the Supervisor of Elections, Dora James.
In the second matter, Luke Browne is challenging Bramble’s nomination and the action of the returning officer, Jacqueline Browne, the supervisor of elections, and the attorney general in that regard.
As is the case with these types of matters, the attorney general is also a respondent.
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