The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

KHALIL Parker was re-elected president of the Bar Council on Friday.

Attorney Romona Farquharson Seymour had challenged him for the post.

Before the vote during the Annual General Meeting, Mrs Farquharson-Seymour sought an injunction from the Supreme Court to compel the association to provide a list of financial members.

However, Justice Neil Brathwaite refused her application and awarded costs to the Bar Association.

“In considering the existence or otherwise of a right to the list, I note that this is not a situation analogous to a general election, where procedures surrounding the promulgation and closing of a voter’s list are carefully set out,” Justice Brathwaite wrote.

“There are no such strictures in the regulations governing this election. Nor has any statutory or common law basis for the existence of such a right been provided. No suggestion has been made that the court should or could interpret the regulations in such a way as to infer the existence of such a right, and no challenge has been launched to the regulations themselves.

“I do not accept that such a list is necessary to assist with campaigning, particularly when the entire membership list is easily ascertainable, and those members are all potential voters who could conceivably become financial in time to vote.

“It is entirely possible that a certain flexibility was deemed necessary to ensure the widest possible participation by professionals who generally operate under severe time constraints. I am therefore not satisfied in all the circumstances of this case that any such ‘right’ to a list exists, as to say that the existence of such a list is desirable or preferable is not the same as saying one must be provided.”