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Posted: Wednesday 25 January, 2017 at 2:23 PM

Opposition intends to refile MoNC against Speaker

By: Terresa McCall, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LEADER of the Parliamentary Opposition Dr. the Rt. Hon. Denzil Douglas said it has every intention of filing a subsequent Notice of Motion of No Confidence in the Speaker but he is unsure as to when that would take place.

     

    In mid-December 2016, Dr. Douglas filed a Notice of MoNC and on last Friday (Jan. 20), Speaker of the National Assembly the Hon. Michael Perkins ruled it out of order in that it did not comply with the Standing Orders of the Parliament and he dismissed it.

     

    The displeased Opposition Members voiced their feelings about the Speaker’s decision in and out of the Parliament, describing it as unjust. 

     

     “We do not know exactly when it will be refiled; that is, a specific motion against the Speaker… But we are guided by the fact that there is one of the Rules of the Standing Orders that says that a matter having been brought should not be brought back within six months. Of course the matter was not heard and that particular Rule in the Standing Orders, it refers to a matter which was disposed of in that it had been heard - debated and heard - and decided upon. But in this case the matter has not been heard at all and we need to therefore seek guidance...

     

    Dr. Douglas reminded that there are two Opposition Members who are lawyers from whom legal and Parliamentary advice can be and is being sought. He said there are others to whom the Opposition has access, who “we believe would give impartial guidance about the interpretation” of the particular Rule in the Standing Orders.

     

    The former Prime Minister said the Opposition continues to have difficulty understanding why the Motion of No Confidence was not allowed to be tabled and debated by the Members of the House.

     

    “We have said that we intend to bring the matter back to the Parliament because as I said…we are very concerned that a number of the rulings which have been made by the Speaker now and when he was sitting as the Deputy Speaker, they reflect bias against the Opposition. And that is why we believe that it is important to highlight these matters in the Parliament. In fact the basic rules that the Speaker continues to refer to is the fact that if he makes a ruling and it does not find favour with any member of the House, the right thing to do is to bring a motion so that the matter can be revisited and that it could be revisited within Parliament.

     

    “So having brought a motion along these lines, we cannot understand why the matter firstly was not heard and secondly why the matter cannot be brought back to the Parliament especially since we believe that justice was not dispensed when the matter was dealt with on Friday of last week. So the short answer is yes we will bring any matter that we believe will highlight a biased decision on the part of the Speaker especially if it is an ongoing and continuing practice. The place to have it aired is within the House by way of motion and that is what the Opposition intends to do.”

     

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