BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATIVE for Constituency Number Two, Marcella Liburd is questioning the Privy Council’s suspension of the proclamation which gave effect to new constituency boundaries.
Liburd was making a presentation yesterday (Feb. 26) at a St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party’s press conference during which she explained that the ruling gave rise to a number of questions which need answers.
In January, a proclamation was made which effected changes to the constituency boundaries across the Federation and that was challenged in a court of law by the then Opposition to the point where it had secured an interim injunction against it.
The Basseterre High Court, which had granted the injunction in the first place, overturned it and that court’s decision was upheld by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
The Opposition took their case to the Privy Council however, and that body restored the interim injunction and suspended the proclamation. The result was that the Federation went to the polls on February 16, 2015 on the old boundaries.
“I would like to raise first of all, the suspended proclamation. That, for me, saw us really in unchartered waters…unchartered waters even for the Privy Council. I don’t know of any precedent where you have a suspended proclamation, a proclamation that has already been signed by the Governor General of a country.
“And so we ask what does that mean for us here in St. Kitts and Nevis? What are really the legal and practical implications of a suspended proclamation? Because remember the proclamation has not been revoked, so its still in existence….suspended, whatever that means.
She said the ruling may have put and left the Federation in “limbo”.
“And so we wondered whether or not what is happening here is we are in some form of limbo because it is suspended. For how long? Those are questions which we probably have to ask. How long would the proclamation be in suspension for? And hope that the Privy Council would very soon put in writing the decision of that matter. As far as I understand it still has not been put in writing….”
Liburd suggested that the elections held on February 16, 2015 may not have been democratic because the boundaries were unfair.
“Democracy calls for fair boundaries, one man one vote. But what we had wasn’t one man one vote with the boundaries as unfair and unequal as they are. That’s a matter that needs to be readily addressed.”
