DeSoto County DA candidate asks for another candidate to be disqualified

MISSISSIPPI (WCBI) – A candidate for District Attorney in DeSoto County is asking state Republican leaders to remove a candidate for Northern District Public Service Commissioner from the party’s primary ballot.

Attorney Matthew Barton said Mandy Gunasekera should be disqualified from running for the office because she has not been a legal resident of the state long enough.

According to Mississippi Code, a candidate for Public Service Commissioner must be a qualified elector, at least 25 years old, a resident of the Supreme Court district in which he/she seeks election, and a citizen of the state five years preceding the day of the election.

That means Gunasekera’s residency would have to go back at least until August 2018.

According to the documentation cited in Barton’s letter to the Mississippi Republican Party, her primary residence at that time, and up until at least January 2019, was Washington D.C.

She registered to vote in Mississippi in 2019, but still filed for a Homestead deduction on her D.C. home as late as 2021.

For a property to qualify for that deduction, it must be the person’s primary residence, and they must live in the District.

The Mississippi Republican Party has not publicly commented on Barton’s request.

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