Submission from Sonia P. E. Grant, Bermuda, 15 October 2007

INTRODUCTION

1. Since the age of sixteen, 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, M.C. P., 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 bye-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, the 19^th day of 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^th August, 1995 which led to the postponement of the Referendum on Independence to the 16^th 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].

-2-

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 two hundred 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 April 20^th 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.

-3-

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^th 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, the 26^th day of 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 the 20^th 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 twenty-two 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^th 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 J.P., 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.

-4-

24. By early August 2006, The Right Worshipful Mr. Jay Bluck, Mayor of Hamilton died, thereby resulting in the need for a bye-election for the office of Mayor, Notice of which was given for the 26^th 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 J.P., 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^th April 2006 election.

27. Suffice it say, that with respect to the election of 26^th October 2006, the position changed. On the afternoon prior to the 26^th 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 1.00a.m. or thereabout on Election morning, the 26^th 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 9.15p.m. 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^th 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.

-5-