[2018] CCJ 13 (AJ) and void and the courts must say so, which the Chief Justice and the Court of Appeal have done. [29] The second concession was made by Ms Alison Burke in her oral arguments before the High Court. Gibson CJ recounted the concession just before he disposed of the action: “However, in the case of Action 2, counsel for the respondents, Ms. Allison Burke, conceded in argument before me that Prof. Ventose was entitled to the remedy of mandamus. She took the position, however, that since he had only filed his application on 4 January 2018, his suit was premature, and that the respondent was still considering his application, along with the many others filed. Accordingly, it must be ordered that Prof. Ventose should be registered with dispatch. This is the more urgent because section 13 (1) of the ROPA enacts inter alia that the Commission shall cause to be prepared and shall publish not later than 31 January in every year a register of electors for each constituency. Prof. Ventose’s name likely had not been published in the register of electors in January 2018.” [30] Thus, the second issue ultimately concerns whether, having satisfied the conditions set out in section 7 of the Act and having completed the requisite application form, Professor Ventose was entitled as of right to be registered. In his view, having satisfied the requirements, he was a qualified person and entitled to have his name placed on the register of electors. According to him, this entitlement places a corresponding duty on the registering officer to place his name on the register of electors. He submitted that the Court of Appeal ought to have found that the registering officer had a duty to place his name on the register of electors and, particularly, in light of the concession made by counsel for the CEO, the court should have mandated that he do so. [31] The Act and the Regulations provide the legal framework relating to how persons who are eligible to vote are to be treated as well as the role of the EBC and the CEO in that regard. The relevant sections and clauses are set out below:

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