A high court judge is joining the opposition team for the May 24 general election in Trinidad and Tobago.Justice Herbert Volney will contest the St Joseph seat as a candidate for the United National Congress (UNC). He quit his job Tuesday to take up the political offer.
Volney is known for his harsh criticism of the Manning administration's mishandling of the justice system.
He once suggested that prisoners should go on a hunger strike to highlight the need for an overhaul of the justice system.
Read the story: Frustrated judge tells prisoners to go on strike
He has also said in the past that he could not be promoted to the Appeal Court because he did not belong to an elite club.
“You must never express an independent viewpoint even though it may be the correct one to propound...You must attend all the invitations sent to you by officialdom in order to rub shoulders or appear to do so...
“You must be from the Christian right and must be seen to be involved whether as Chancellor, pastor, singer of all the psalms in the incantations of religious fervour.”
Read the story: Judge says you have to be in elite club to move to Appeal court
The PNM's Kennedy Swaratsingh won St Joseph in 2007 in a three-way race. But in 2010 it will be a two-fight, with Swaratsingh defending the seat against the former judge.
St Joseph is considered a marginal seat and was held by the UNC before. In 2007 Swaratsingh won with 7,965. The UNC’s Dr Carson Charles got 4,945 and Gillian Lucky of the COP received 4,144 votes.
In a two-way race, Volney is starting with an advantage of 1124 votes assuming the voting list is the same as it was in 2007.
In his last day in court, Volney slammed Legal Affairs Minister Peter Taylor over his failure to ensure the proper functioning of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority.
He also criticized Taylor for failing to take to Cabinet a new draft of the Legal Aid system for better compensation for lawyers. Taylor is not running as a candidate in 2010.
Justice Volney was born in Dominica and is a naturalised citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. That gives him the legal right to stand for election since his other citizenship was involuntary.
1 comment:
I first met this Judge in 1990-91 when he was an attorney attached to the Chambers of Karl Hudson Phillips Q.C. I had gone to see Mr Hudson Phillips in relation to an Industrial Court judgment to which I was a party. Mr Hudson Phillips was out of the country and I chatted with this attorney who presumed at that time that I waas just an ordinary agrieved individual.
I am pretty sure everyone will be interested in my brief conversation at that time.
Stay tuned.
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