PSA election put off again

NEXT Monday's executive elections of the Public Services Association (PSA) has been postponed.

The new date is tentatively December 14, once issues with a new voters' list are rectified.

On Monday, Justice Nadia Kangaloo heard from the new elections committee, which gave the court the new final voters' list.

But the judge pointed out that the new list was not in conformity with a previous order she gave in February 2018.

Before her is a lawsuit filed in 2017 by then PSA contender Solomon Gabriel and his Team Fixers, who challenged the elections and obtained an injunction in November 2017, which stopped the executive elections that year.

In its legal challenge, Gabriel’s team argued that the list of voters was fundamentally flawed because of a decision by the union's general council to allow PSA members whose union dues were in arrears to vote if they cleared their arrears.

At the time the initial lawsuit was filed, almost 300 of the union's 14,000 members reportedly took advantage of the move.

In February 2018, Kangaloo ordered the committee to "sanitise" the list and set a new date for elections after she found multiple irregularities.

The new list presented on Monday was also said to be flawed, with numerous duplications.
The elections committee has until November 24 to present the new final list to the court. The parties will return on November 26.

Last year, Team Fixers brought contempt proceedings against the PSA executive, claiming the committee breached Kangaloo's order by deciding to scrap theoriginal list and by calling elections on November 23.

Gabriel and his team are not contesting the upcoming elections.

The group is being represented by Lemuel Murphy and Stacey Mc Sween. John Heath and Lionel Luckhoo are representing the PSA.