Election petitions brought against Premier, Hon. Mark Brantley and Hon. Spencer Brand, who are elected representatives in the Nevis Island Assembly and sitting Ministers in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), were on Monday, February 27th, struck out and dismissed.

The petitions were filed by Jaedee Caines and Dr. Patricia Bartlette of the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP). High Court Judge Justice Patrick Thompson Jr. heard arguments about the strike out applications filed by the Concerned Citizens Movement Party (CCM’s) Mr. Brantley and Mr. Brand on Wednesday February 15th, and reserved his decision until February 27th.

Sources say Justice Thompson Jr., ruled that the case submission for Ms. Caines’ election petition was filed outside of the 21-day requirement for the valid presentation of election petitions and was therefore “a nullity and is struck out and dismissed”. For Dr. Bartlette’s petition, the Judge stated that because the petition was not properly filed by the stipulated time “the court is compelled to find that Dr. Bartlette’s petition is struck out for non-compliance”.

The petitions challenged the results of the Nevis #1 (St. Paul’s Parish) and Nevis #2 (St. John’s Parish) seats in the Dec. 12th 2022 – Nevis Island Assembly Election, where both Candidates were defeated by the incumbents CCM’s Mr. Brand and Premier Brantley, by 27 votes and 147 votes, respectively. Furthermore, the judge ruled that the petitioners shall pay costs to the respondents, such costs to be assessed by the court, if not determined. Mr. Brantley gave the VONNEWSLINE this comment:

The VONNEWSLINE contacted NRP’s Leader, Dr. Janice Daniel-Hodge, for comment on the matter, but to no avail.