A landmark Wednesday ruling from Grenada’s High Court in the capital of St George’s has formally cleared all legal barriers to the island nation’s long-scheduled general election, set to unfold on Thursday, allowing incumbent Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell to formally pursue a second consecutive term in national office. Presiding Justice Agnes Actie delivered the decisive judgment that rejected a full pre-election lawsuit filed by local attorney Cajeton Hood, which had named Prime Minister Mitchell, the Supervisor of Elections, and the national Attorney General as co-defendants. Hood’s legal bid had sought an immediate injunction to halt the entire electoral process and declare the October 2 parliamentary dissolution that triggered the polls unconstitutional. In her comprehensive ruling, Justice Actie confirmed that Prime Minister Mitchell acted strictly within the bounds of national constitutional law when he formally advised Governor-General Dame Cécile La Grenade to dissolve the legislative body to trigger early elections, well ahead of the mandatory October 2027 constitutional deadline for the next national vote. The judge further clarified that any grievances related to the publication of electoral notices by the Supervisor of Elections, including concerns raised by Hood, fall outside the scope of pre-civil court proceedings, especially given that early voting for roughly 70% of the country’s registered police officers had already been completed earlier that Monday. “These objections must be pursued via a formal election petition only after the conclusion of the general elections,” Justice Actie stated in her written decision. “Bound by the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, this court cannot use standard Civil Procedure Rules to circumvent explicit constitutional requirements for challenging electoral outcomes.” The court had deliberated over three core preliminary legal questions throughout the proceedings: whether the state had violated any laws by dissolving parliament and setting the election date, whether Hood’s original legal claim had become functionally obsolete after parliament was dissolved and the poll date was formalized, and whether the Supervisor of Elections had fully complied with Section 37 of the Representation of the People Act. Justice Actie concluded that Hood’s entire claim fell explicitly under the defined scope of an Elections Petition Claim, a legal mechanism that the constitution restricts to post-election proceedings, and ordered the case struck from the court’s active cause list. Following the ruling, the dissolution of parliament remains fully valid, and the Thursday election timeline remains unchanged. Hood represented himself during the proceedings, while legal teams included the Office of the Attorney General alongside barristers Francis Alexis KC, Ruggles Ferguson KC, and Ian Sandy representing the prime minister and attorney general, and Darshan Ramdhani KC and Sabrita Khan-Ramdhani representing the Supervisor of Elections. The upcoming vote represents a critical electoral test for Mitchell’s ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), which secured a narrow 9-6 parliamentary majority in its 2022 landslide victory. The party now faces a competitive three-way contest across Grenada’s 15 constituencies, with the main opposition New National Party (NNP) led by Emmalin Pierre making history as the first NNP ticket in 40 years not to feature former long-serving prime minister Keith Mitchell as its standard-bearer, and the third-party Democratic People’s Movement led by Peter David positioning itself as a viable alternative for undecided voters. The electoral process is being independently monitored by official observer missions from both the Organisation of American States and the Commonwealth Secretariat to uphold full voting transparency. Notably, Prime Minister Mitchell skipped the final sessions of this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda to focus on local campaigning, with Grenada’s tourism minister Adrian Thomas leading the official national delegation at the regional summit on his behalf.
11th-hour high court ruling clears way for Grenada’s general election
