Activist to take local government election case to Privy Council

POLITICAL and social activist Ravi Balgobin-Maharaj says he expected a more favourable outcome to his local government election challenge, but will be appealing Friday's ruling of the Court of Appeal.

On Friday, Justices of Appeal Prakash Moosai, Gillian Lucky and James Aboud dismissed his complaints about the Local Government Reform Act, which contains amendments to the Municipal Corporations Act.

Passed by a simple majority in 2022, the act allowed local government elections to be delayed by a year. The elections were due between December 2022 and March 2023, but the partial proclamation of local-government reform legislation allowed the extension of the terms of councillors and aldermen to four years.

Balgobin-Maharaj has already received conditional leave to petition the Privy Council.

In a statement, Balgobin-Maharaj said he continued to have faith in his legal team, led by former attorney general Anand Ramlogan, SC, and the strength of the case.

"We have already begun the process of filing an appeal to the Privy Council and I am hopeful that we can better be able to convince the Law Lords that the extension of the local government election is illegal and that we must have an election when it is constitutionally due. "To have persons remaining in elected offices past the expiry date of their term is a breach of the constitutional mandate that governs our democratic process, and it cannot be allowed to continue if we claim to live in a democracy."