Dispelling any belief that he has conceded defeat in the race for leader of the hotel union, incumbent President Pat Bain has taken legal action against Director of Labour Harcourt Brown and various members of the Justice Team, securing a court order against those respondents.
The order, issued by Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Thompson, also includes a penal notice warning that if the respondents fail to comply with its terms they would be liable to contempt proceedings and may be imprisoned for contempt of court.
Hotel union general secretary Leo Douglas said members of the Rainbow Team – led by Mr. Bain – applied for leave to institute judicial review proceedings in order to keep persons who claim to have been elected to the Executive Council of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union from interfering in the union’s business.
Mr. Bain and Justice Team leader Roy Colebrooke tied in the recent union elections, according to the Department of Labour, at 1,043 votes each. Mr. Douglas was the only member of the Rainbow Team who won in the elections. He held on to his post by a mere three votes.
The application for judicial review names Kirk Wilson, Lionel Morley, Sidney Rolle, Anwar Taylor, Basil McKenzie, Francis Gray, Kayla Bodie, Ian Neely, Brian Collie and Quince Munroe – all members of the Justice Team – as the second respondents.
The second respondents all won in the elections, the Department of Labour reported.
The application for judicial review seeks an order of certiorari quashing the certificate of results of the contested union elections, a declaration that the election is void, and damages, among other remedies.
Approving the application, the court ordered that, “the first respondent (the Registrar of Trade Unions, Harcourt Brown) be restrained whether by himself or herself, his agents or her agents, his servants or her servants or anyway howsoever from supervising any elections to the offices of the Executive Council of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union until the determination of the judicial review proceedings.”
“Save and except for the matters provided for in paragraph four hereof, the second respondents and each of them are hereby restrained from purporting to act as the Executive Council of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union until the determination of the judicial review proceedings.”
Paragraph four provides that the incumbent officers of the Executive Council – that is, those who held those posts before the controversial elections on May 26 – shall continue to hold their posts on the Executive Council until the judicial review proceedings are determined.
Just last week, Labour and Immigration Minister Shane Gibson reported that Mr. Bain had failed to indicate by 4pm last Thursday whether he consented to his name being placed on a ballot for a runoff for president.
He said presidential candidate for the Justice Team, Mr. Colebrooke, had indicated his consent.
Following a controversial vote counting process and numerous complaints of voting irregularities, labour officials declared that Mr. Bain and Mr. Colebrooke had each received the same amount of votes.
Mr. Douglas, however, said neither he nor Mr. Bain was apprised of a registration process for the presidential runoff.
“The Rainbow Team had not agreed to any process,” he said on Monday.
“We don’t even know what people were doing behind the scenes-I have never heard one word from the Ministry (of Labour) neither the minister of labour since maybe May 26 or whatever time when they had made some determination and when they declared a tie.”
Mr. Douglas also suggested that the best way to resolve the current stalemate is to hold a new election process for all of the 12 executive positions that were contested in the original election.
By: Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
