[2018] CCJ 13 (AJ)
official, tribunal, board, committee or other authority of the Government of
Barbados exercising, purporting to exercise or failing to exercise any power or duty
conferred or imposed by the Constitution or by any enactment”. We agree with the
Chief Justice that application of the policy of the EBC and its CEO by electoral
officials constitutes an administrative act within section 2 of the AJA, designed to
preclude Mr. Ventose from obtaining registration as an elector despite his meeting
the statutorily mandated requirements. Accordingly, Professor Ventose has locus
standi under section 6(a) and is entitled to seek relief in his application for judicial
review, quite apart from having locus standi under section 6(b) as held by the Court
of Appeal.
Right to be entered on Register of Voters
[28]
We must acknowledge two concessions before adjudicating on the second issue.
The first is that at the Court of Appeal hearing, it was conceded by counsel for the
CEO that the long-standing policy to register as electors only those persons who
were citizens, permanent residents or holders of immigrant status, so as to exclude
resident Commonwealth citizens (other than Barbados citizens) was ultra vires and
unlawful, as, indeed, the Chief Justice had held. This was an important and wise
concession because there is a wider and more important principle at stake here
beyond the right of resident Commonwealth citizens to vote at general elections in
Barbados. That principle is one that was long fought over in England and which
was finally settled as long ago as the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689. It is that
the Crown or the Executive Authority is subordinate to Parliament; that Acts of
Parliament must be obeyed by the Executive Authority. This is a fundamental
aspect of the rule of law which is at the core of Barbados' constitutionalism. Neither
the Executive Authority nor the Electoral Officer is entitled with impunity to
establish or implement a policy that is at variance with the Constitution and laws
of Barbados. To the extent that this is what is precisely being advanced here, the
court must resolutely set its face against it. If there is good reason for the claimed
policy to exist, then before it can lawfully be implemented the Executive must seek
to have Parliament alter the law. Unless the law is altered any such policy is illegal
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