The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has rejected an urgent application submitted by Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan on behalf of his client, Jerry Enriquez, who sought to delay the upcoming March 12th elections in Belize.
Mr. Ramlogan argued that holding the election with the current voter list would violate the constitution.
Late Monday evening, Senior Counsel Ramlogan filed for special leave to appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice, despite the matter still being before the Court of Appeal in Belize. However, on Tuesday, the CCJ denied the request for special leave.
Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay, representing the Prime Minister and the Attorney General of Belize, described Mr. Ramlogan’s CCJ application as a last-ditch effort.
“The CCJ dismissed it, saying that it was absolutely without merit. The point of the matter is this: The matter is before the Court of Appeal. The Court of the Appeal has not even grappled with it yet, because it gave directions that were not to his liking in terms of timing, he thought he would go to the Caribbean Court of Justice. In my opinion, it’s a clear case of what lawyers call forum shopping. If you don’t like this court, you run to a next one. It was transparent and obvious, and entirely without merit.”