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Posted: Thursday 22 January, 2015 at 4:10 PM

Dr. Douglas claims no rush in Emergency Parliament

Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas
By: Loshaun Dixon, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - PRIME MINISTER of St. Kitts and Nevis the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas is claiming that there was no rush to lay the Constituency Boundaries Report before the Parliament and quashed Opposition claims that proper notice was not given.

     

    Speaking at his monthly press conference yesterday (Jan. 21), Dr. Douglas claimed that the Government obeyed the Constitution during the events on Friday (Jan. 16).

    “I don’t think that the changes were rushed through Parliament at all. First of all there was the initial argument by the Opposition that adequate notice was not given. That is not so at all! According to the Parliamentary Rules and Regulations, the Speaker determines when the Parliament is to sit and the Speaker, I am sure, is guided by the Constitution.”

    He also quoted the section of the Constitution that speaks to what action has to be taken when the Boundaries Commission submits a report.

    “It says here on Section 50 subsection 3: ‘As soon as may be after the Commission has submitted a report under subsection (1)(a), the Prime Minister shall lay before the National Assembly for its approval the draft of a proclamation by the Governor-General for giving effect, whether with or without modifications, to the recommendations contained in the report etc.’”

    He the reflected on some of Friday’s activities.

    “I think that we have obeyed very, very strictly the Constitution. The Commission submitted the Report just after it had completed on Friday, January 15. The Speaker found it absolutely necessary to then trigger an emergency sitting of the Parliament. 

    “The important thing the Members of the Opposition…all attended except for one. That is the Hon. Mark Brantley who was off island. You may not have seen Senator Byron in the Parliament but he chose not to come because he, in fact, was one of the first to be served notice since he was one of the members of the Commission.”

    The Prime Minister reiterated the claimed that the Parliament was not rushed.

    “To say that it was rushed through Parliament, I don’t think so. In fact, although the Speaker had made a move after waiting for Parliamentarians to start the debate after I had made the presentation to the Parliament and explaining the new boundaries, no one moved from the Opposition and none of the Members on my side wanted to have any further debate. 

    “The Hon. Speaker did a very fair job in judgement and made a move to close the debate on my request.

    “But then he was told that although Members may not have been paying attention to what was happening because Members were talking amongst themselves, he again open the matter for further debate and you recognize the Hon. Sam Condor had almost an hour plus to make his presentations. And clearly from what he was saying…he was speaking for the entire Opposition. 

    “After realising he was just wasting people’s time, I thought it was important to close the debate.”
     
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