ST. GEORGE ‘S, Grenada: The island’s disputed general elections might be decided by August, nine months after the original poll, legal sources here have projected. While there are three challenges to the results, most here consider the challenge to the seat in Carriacou is the most serious of those. Opposition candidate George Prime has challenged his six-vote loss to Elvin Nimrod. Ruling New National Party losing candidates Adrian Mitchell (St Patrick’s East) and Ann Antoine (South St George) have also challenged their results, but legal thinkers here believe those have less merits, and will almost certainly be thrown out. “The filing of these two challenges was more for strategic political reasons more than the real weight of the case,” a person close to the NNP case acknowledged to CARIBUPDATE this past week. Both sides in the Carriacou challenge agree on one thing – however Trinidad-born Judge Charmaine Pemberton rules next month, it will be appealed in the OECS High Court. That appeal is expected to be taken up in the June sitting of the High Court. Prime’s high-powered team led by Queens Counsel Carol Bristol and former Attorney General Lloyd Noel are confident of their case in law, but they are worried about one thing – the conservative record of the sitting judge. “Looking back at Pemberton’s history, she has never ruled in any major case against the status quo, and we should not be holding our breath over this one,” was how one lawyer summed it up. The broad expectation in legal circles here is that Pemberton will rule in favor of the governing NNP – and then it will be taken to the OECS High Court. The Prime defense is working on the theory that their best hope for “justice” will be at that level. But not everybody is that hopeful. “It will take a brave judge, especially in the OECS, to make a ruling that will bring down a government, no matter how strong the case is in law. I am not sure that we can find such a brave judge in the current OECS set-up,” was how one local lawyer, who did not want to be identified, explained it to CARIBUPDATE. During last week’s budget debate Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell sounded confident about government winning its case and referred to “recent developments”, without elaborating. One government official told CARIBUPDATE that the administration is more than confident of being there for the next five years. In spite of initially arguments that were made to Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell, including his Christmas eve meeting with a prominent news editor, it has decided that there will be no snap election this year unless the courts force it. But in the last few weeks, government officials are more confident than ever, that this is not likely to happen. SOURCE: CARIBUPDATE.COM