June 2002 Table of Contents

STONE GOES SOLO

Abaco singer and entertainer Gladstone "Stone" McEwan won a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court when the court granted an injunction to prevent the presiding officer at an election from marking the voter's number on the counterfoil. Through his attorney, Dr Peter Maynard, Stone convinced Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall that the election process did not guarantee a secret vote because of that marking.

Who says Bahamian justice is slow? It certainly is not when government gets stung in the butt.

A late night sitting of the appellate court, within 12 hours of the ruling brought by the Department of Legal Affairs, overturned the decision on the basis that the Constitution does not provide a right to secrecy. Which proves Stone's point.

Stone is determined to take the issue to the highest court in the Commonwealth of Nations, the Privy Council. He has worked for years and has spent a lot of his own money to educate the Bahamian public on the matter and take the case to the highest courts of the land

June 2002 Table of Contents