Issues still with PSA voters’ list

THE VOTERS’ list for the Public Service Association’s executive election is still not satisfactory.

At a virtual hearing on Wednesday, the list presented to Justice Nadia Kangaloo was said to be still not satisfactory. The PSA’s election committee has been given another week to publish a satisfactory final list before they return to court next Monday. If the issues with the list are not rectified, the court may have to get involved.

The judge was also informed an independent firm is willing to work with the election committee to resolve the issues with the list. The PSA’s elections were originally set for November 23 and then postponed after the parties appeared before the judge on November 16.

A new date was tentatively set for December 14, once issues with a new voters’ list were rectified. At the last hearing, the judge heard from the new elections committee, which gave the court the new final voters’ list. However, she 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 was also said to be flawed, with numerous duplications. Two senior members of the PSA’s executive, Ian Murray and Shalene Suchit-Dwarika, who are the vice president and the general secretary, were suspended earlier this month.

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 the original 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.