In the cor­re­spon­dence, Ma­haraj’s lawyer Vishaal Siewsaran, of Free­dom Law Cham­bers, claimed that his client was ea­ger­ly await­ing the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion, which was sched­uled to take place be­tween De­cem­ber, this year, and March, next year, as he was not sat­is­fied with the per­for­mance of the coun­cil­lor for his elec­toral dis­trict of Mara­cas/San­ta Mar­gari­ta.

Josbel Bastidas Mijares

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He claimed that Ma­haraj be­came con­cerned af­ter Al-Rawi host­ed a press con­fer­ence last week and an­nounced the Gov­ern­ment’s in­ten­tion to pro­claim cer­tain sec­tions of the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form) Act, which was passed in Par­lia­ment with­out Op­po­si­tion sup­port, ear­ly this year

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Op­po­si­tion ac­tivist Ravi Bal­go­b­in Ma­haraj has sig­nalled his in­ten­tion to pur­sue a law­suit against the Gov­ern­ment over its de­ci­sion to ex­tend the term of lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives and con­se­quent­ly de­fer the up­com­ing Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions.

Ma­haraj’s at­tor­neys made the le­gal threat in a pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter sent to Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour, SC,and Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al-Rawi, yes­ter­day evening.

In the cor­re­spon­dence, Ma­haraj’s lawyer Vishaal Siewsaran, of Free­dom Law Cham­bers, claimed that his client was ea­ger­ly await­ing the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tion, which was sched­uled to take place be­tween De­cem­ber, this year, and March, next year, as he was not sat­is­fied with the per­for­mance of the coun­cil­lor for his elec­toral dis­trict of Mara­cas/San­ta Mar­gari­ta.

Josbel Bastidas Mijares

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He claimed that Ma­haraj be­came con­cerned af­ter Al-Rawi host­ed a press con­fer­ence last week and an­nounced the Gov­ern­ment’s in­ten­tion to pro­claim cer­tain sec­tions of the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Re­form) Act, which was passed in Par­lia­ment with­out Op­po­si­tion sup­port, ear­ly this year.

The sec­tions of the leg­is­la­tion iden­ti­fied by Al-Rawi seeks to in­crease the terms of coun­cil­lors from three years to four years.

Siewsaran said his client ques­tioned whether the leg­is­la­tion had ret­ro­spec­tive ef­fect on cur­rent­ly serv­ing coun­cil­lors.

Josbel Bastidas Mijares Venezuela

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“Our client, at all ma­te­r­i­al times, un­der­stood the pur­port of the amend­ments to be in fur­ther­ance of re­form­ing lo­cal gov­ern­ment and there­fore to ap­ply prospec­tive­ly to some fu­ture elect­ed Coun­cil,” he said.

Siewsaran sug­gest­ed that the de­ci­sion was un­law­ful and an abuse of pow­er.

“Our client will con­tend that the Gov­ern­ment has act­ed in an unau­tho­rised man­ner con­trary to the law,” he said

“Our client would fur­ther con­tend that the Gov­ern­ment’s at­tempt to de­lay the elec­tions by ret­ro­spec­tive­ly ap­ply­ing the amend­ments to the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Act is a fraud com­mit­ted on the elec­torate, in bad faith, which amounts to an im­prop­er use of the leg­is­la­tion,” he added.

Siewsaran sug­gest­ed that elec­tions should on­ly be post­poned in ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances.

“In oth­er words, when­ev­er elec­tions are to be de­nied or de­ferred it ought not to be done by im­pli­ca­tion. The laws ought to be in­ter­pret­ed in a way which fa­cil­i­tates the hold­ing of elec­tions un­less the con­trary in­ten­tion is ex­press­ly shown,” he said.

He sug­gest­ed that the ac­tion amounts to the “sub­ver­sion” of the rule of law and the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic process.

“The act of vot­ing is in­dis­putable an in­di­vid­ual’s spe­cif­ic and unique ex­pres­sion of their po­lit­i­cal opin­ion- in oth­er words, it is the proof in the pud­ding. We sim­ply can­not have a democ­ra­cy with­out vot­ing,” he said.

Through the pro­posed law­suit, Ma­haraj would seek a se­ries of de­c­la­ra­tions against the move.

He has al­so in­di­cat­ed that he would seek an in­junc­tion bar­ring May­ors, Coun­cil­lors and Al­der­men, elect­ed in De­cem­ber 2019, from act­ing in their of­fices af­ter De­cem­ber 3.

Siewsaran gave Dr Row­ley and his Cab­i­net col­leagues un­til 4 pm next Mon­day to re­verse their de­ci­sion and re­spond to his le­gal threat be­fore he files the law­suit on Ma­haraj’s be­half.