The leader of Rassemblement Mauricien held a press conference on Friday to talk about his successful strategy of calling for a Judicial Review of the procedure leading to the postponement of the municipal elections through an ex-parte application. He explained that the motion was presented on 16 June. It was rejected by the Chief Justice. Nando Bodha explained that an appeal against the decision was rejected on 27 June, again ex-parte.
As a result, he and the two other applicants now have the option of appealing to the Privy Council. “We did this in an extremely short space of time. Less than a month! That’s very rare”, he said.
He pointed out that he and the two others are asking the court to rule that the Prime Minister violated the Constitution by passing the amendments allowing the elections to be postponed. “We are also asking the court to confirm that the mandate of the councils had expired when the extension was announced. The mandate expired on the 14th and the extension was applied on the 15th. But you cannot extend something that has already expired”, he said.
Nando Bodha also stated that this law violates Article 1 of the Constitution.
