Submission from Sonia P E Grant, Bermuda
INTRODUCTION
1. Since the age of 16, I have been on the
periphery of Bermudian politics.
2. In early spring 1968, I was a registration
clerk for the Parliamentary Registrar, in the registration of
all eligible Bermudian voters under the implementation of universal
adult suffrage.
3. Upon completion of the registration exercise,
I went to work in late spring and for the duration of the summer
of 1968, for a parliamentarian, Gilbert Outerbridge Darrell, MCP,
as Members of Parliament were then known.
4. Since that time I qualified as a teacher
in England in 1974 and as a Barrister-at-law in England in 1985,
and have practised law—probate, wills and estates and real
property in most of its forms; and ecclesiastical—in Bermuda
since March 1986.
5. I have served as a presiding officer
in elections and by-elections throughout Bermuda in the latter
half of the seventies, 1983, and the latter half of the eighties
and up to 1993. In fact in 1993, the Returning Officer that I
worked with at an election recommended me to the Cabinet Office
to be appointed as a Justice of The Peace. I was sent the application
form, but never completed it.
6. In my capacity as Registrar of the Synod
of The Anglican Church of Bermuda and The Bishop's Court, a position
I was invited to fill in early 1995, I was privileged to preside
over the election of the first Bermudian Bishop of The Anglican
Church in Bermuda, The Right Reverend Ewen Ratteray, and was a
part of his historic Consecration and Enthronement Service held
on Sunday 19 May 1996, in Bermuda, and attended by The Archbishop
of Canterbury.
7. In September 1995 or thereabout, I, along
with two others, was invited by His Excellency the Governor, Lord
Waddington, to serve as a Commissioner on a Commission of Inquiry
with the following terms of reference:
"To inquire into the circumstances and
events which occurred on Tuesday, 15 August, 1995 which led to
the postponement of the Referendum on Independence to the 16 August
and to make any recommendations arising therefrom".
8. As a result of the 1995 Commission's
work, amendments to The Parliamentary Act 1978 were promulgated,
but those amendments were not brought to bear on Municipalities
Act 1923 which governs the Corporation of Hamilton. [See paragraph
13 post].
9. In 1993, with the backing of the Business
and Professional Women's Association, and the unwavering support
of two of its members in particular, the then Dr Marjorie Bean
[who later on became Dame Marjorie Bean] and Dolores Darrell,
the then President of The Association, I was privileged to win
a bye-election for the seat of Common Councillor, thereby becoming
the first female Member of the Corporation of Hamilton in its
200 year old history. I had defeated Sutherland Madeiros, the
only other candidate.
10. I served as a Councillor of The Corporation
of Hamilton from 1993 to October 2003, when I became Senior Alderman
and Deputy Mayor and a Justice of the Peace by virtue of my Office,
until 20 April 2006.
11. From 1993 to October 2003, there were
only two Mayoral elections, with the positions of Alderman and
Common Councillor always being uncontested.
THE CORPORATION
OF HAMILTON
12. The Corporation of Hamilton is one of
two Bermudian Municipalities, the other being the Corporation
of St. George. As alluded to in paragraph 9 herein, the Corporation
of Hamilton was formed in 1793.
13. Under Municipalities Act 1923 as amended,
the Corporation of Hamilton derives its authority.
14. I would be bold to say that, in my humble
opinion, it is a result of the existence of the Corporation of
Hamilton, with its taxing provisions, that Bermuda is what it
is today, and furthermore, that it is the existence of the Corporation
of Hamilton that sets Bermuda ahead of other overseas territories
as a tremendously successful jurisdiction.
15. For a country the size of Bermuda, it
is by virtue of The Corporation of Hamilton, that there exists
a sophisticated infrastructure in Hamilton of asphalted roads,
decent sidewalks and gutters, underground fibre optics and other
cabling, docks, water supply, garbage collection, sewerage treatment,
electricity, CCTV cameras, telecommunications, office blocks and
a growing number of high-rise condominia.
16. The City of Hamilton is no doubt a tremendous
success story, in most regards.
17. The City of Hamilton, however, is not
a success story when it comes to Human Rights and in particular
how it conducts its Elections, which are not free and fair, and
in keeping with international conventions.
GOOD GOVERNANCE
AND HUMAN
RIGHTS
18. Since the ratification of The European
Convention on Human Rights and its five protocols by the United
Kingdom Government on behalf of the Government of Bermuda, an
Overseas Territory of The United Kingdom, The Corporation of Hamilton,
which is a legislating body, has a franchise, pursuant to Part
1 of First Schedule to Municipalities Act 1923, which is in breach
of Article 3 of Protocol 1 The European Convention of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms because the elections are not free and
fair as the franchise is not based on universal adult suffrage.
19. There are a number of people in Bermuda
who share my concern.
20. Even though I lost my legal action,
initiated in the Supreme Court of Bermuda against the winner of
the 26 October 2007 election, The Right Worshipful Sutherland
Madeiros, Mayor of Hamilton; the Returning Officer and the Registering
Officer; the Mayoral election held by The Corporation of Hamilton
on Thursday 26 October 2007 was an absolute disgrace, with the
rule of law being tossed out the window.
21. My lawsuit Number 357 of 2006 in the
Civil Jurisdiction of The Supreme Court of Bermuda was premised
on what was the correct interpretation of paragraph 9 sub-paragraph
4 (b) Part 2 of First Schedule to Municipalities Act 1923.
22. I had been a Member of the Corporation
of Hamilton until 20 April 2006, when I was nominated to run for
the Office of Mayor. There were two other candidates, the incumbent
Mayor and one of the other two Alderman, Jay Bluck, who subsequently
won the election by 22 votes, the same number of votes that the
incumbent Mayor, The Right Worshipful Lawson Mapp, received.
23. Notwithstanding its illegal franchise,
there was nothing untoward about the election of 20 April 2006,
save for the fact that despite the Corporation of Hamilton Members
instructing the Secretary of The Corporation of Hamilton to hire
two Returning Officers, only one was hired, Mr John Cooper JP,
a fellow Member of The Bermuda Bar. According to the Secretary
of The Corporation of Hamilton, she told those of us present at
a regular Tuesday meeting of the Corporation in mid-April 2006,
that Mr John Cooper, the Returning Officer, did not wish another
Returning Office appointed, because he could do the job by himself.
24. By early August 2006, The Right Worshipful
Mr Jay Bluck, Mayor of Hamilton died, thereby resulting in the
need for a by-election for the office of Mayor, Notice of which
was given for 26 October 2006.
25. Hitherto, in all the elections of the
Corporation of Hamilton the position had been taken by the Registering
Officer of The Corporation of Hamilton, the Secretary of the Corporation
of Hamilton, that once the Notice of Election was published, there
would be no changes to the Voters' Register.
26. This too, had been the position of the
Returning Officer, Mr John Cooper JP, who in March 2006 had stated
this salient fact in his advisory circular to all candidates running
for office with the Corporation of Hamilton in the 27 April 2006
election.
27. Suffice it say, that with respect to
the election of 26 October 2006, the position changed. On the
afternoon prior to the 26 October 2006 election, threats were
made by the Returning Officer to the Registering Officer on the
telephone, that unless the Registering Officer had changed the
names of nominees of companies which had submitted applications
for the change of names, after the publication of the Notice of
The Mayoral Election, he, the Returning Officer would go ahead
and issue ballott papers to those individuals who attended at
City Hall to vote, even though their names did not appear on the
Voters List.
28. The Registering Officer did make changes
to the Voters' List at 1.00 am or thereabout on Election morning,
26 October 2006.
29. When I requested of the Registering
Officer a list of the names, after she casually mentioned to me
on election morning that she had changed the names of various
nominees of companies on the Voters List, she then failed to provide
me with a list of names that had been added in a timely manner,
and not until 9.15 pm after the election had ended and the votes
counted, when I requested again the revised voters list.
30. I never knew of the threats the Returning
Officer had made against the Registering Officer until after I
filed my Petition in The Supreme Court of Bermuda, and same was
reported in the press, when various individuals, including Members
of The Corporation of Hamilton, told me of the threats.
31. There is a tremendous amount more that
can be said about the Mayoral election of 26 October 2006 and
how the electoral rights of the constituents of the City of Hamilton
and the rule of law were trampled, but the basis of this submission
is to draw the Committee's attention to the lack of good governance
emanating from the Corporation of Hamilton and its continual undermining
of the human rights of its constituents in the context of its
elections.
32. I am willing to give oral evidence.
15 October 2007
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