Kurt Allen loses bid to stop TUCO election

The High Court has re­fused an ur­gent ex parte ap­pli­ca­tion filed by ca­lyp­son­ian Kurt Allen in a bid to stop the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) elec­tion sched­uled for Ju­ly 12, 2026.

In an or­der dat­ed Ju­ly 3, 2026, and is­sued by Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad, the court ruled that it was not sat­is­fied to grant the in­ter­im re­lief at this stage of the pro­ceed­ings.

The ap­pli­ca­tion was filed against TU­CO, the First De­fen­dant, along with Ains­ley King and Shirlane Hen­drick­son as Sec­ond and Third De­fen­dants, re­spec­tive­ly.

Ac­cord­ing to the or­der, the court con­sid­ered the Claim Form, State­ment of Case and Cer­tifi­cate of Ur­gency, all filed on Ju­ly 3, 2026.

The mat­ter was de­ter­mined in cham­bers with­out a hear­ing.

“The court re­fus­es the grant of an ex parte or­der as sought,” the or­der stat­ed.

How­ev­er, the court di­rect­ed that Allen must serve the de­fen­dants with the claim doc­u­ments, cer­tifi­cate of ur­gency and a no­tice of ap­pli­ca­tion for in­junc­tive re­lief by 4 pm on Mon­day, Ju­ly 6, 2026.

The court fur­ther or­dered that a hear­ing of the ap­pli­ca­tion for in­junc­tive re­lief be fixed be­fore the dock­et­ed judge on a date pri­or to the sched­uled Ju­ly 12 elec­tion.

Costs in the mat­ter will be de­ter­mined by the as­signed judge.

The le­gal chal­lenge stems from Allen’s claim that TU­CO’s planned elec­tion breach­es its con­sti­tu­tion, with ar­gu­ments that the ear­li­est law­ful date for the vote is Au­gust 21, 2026, and that pro­ceed­ing on Ju­ly 12 would be im­prop­er.

The sub­stan­tive is­sues are yet to be de­ter­mined by the court.