A dispute over the V.I. Democratic Party’s primary process came to an amicable end Thursday at the federal courthouse on St. Croix after two-and-a-half hours of court-ordered mediation between the party, V.I. Election System, Elections Supervisor Caroline Fawkes and Elections Board chair Raymond Williams.
The Democratic Party brought the suit earlier this month and argued that the Elections System’s distribution of nomination petitions and papers violated the party’s constitutional right to implement its own primary plan, which they sent to the system and Elections Board in late January. In its complaint, the party wrote that its First Amendment rights would be irreparably harmed and that the primary election would be thrown “into chaos” if the court did not order them to stop distribution.
Assistant Attorney General Ariel Smith-Francois, representing the Elections System, Fawkes and Williams, told the Source that the dispute was largely about conflicting dates in the calendar released by the government and the Democratic Party’s primary plan. Summarizing the agreement for U.S. District Court Chief Judge Robert Molloy, she explained that the Elections System will be responsible for determining the statutory qualification of candidates — ensuring they meet age, residency and citizenship requirements — while the Democratic Party will be responsible for certifying candidates’ party membership.
Molloy and Magistrate Judge Emile Henderson III, who presided over the mediation, both lauded the group for resolving their disagreement in mediation, with Henderson noting that “it is always better than going through protracted litigation.”
“Ideally, this should have been done months ago,” Molloy observed before commending them.
The parties told Henderson and Molloy that they will file a joint motion to dismiss the lawsuit within 10 days.
“I think it’s a big win for the Virgin Islands,” said attorney Peter Lynch, who represented the Democratic Party, after Thursday’s resolution.
