Verdicts remain hanging in Constituency boundaries case

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE ongoing legal drama between the opposition member Hon. Shawn Richards, the Attorney General (AG) and the Constituency Boundaries Commission (CBC) has paused once again with the departure of Her Ladyship Justice Rita Joseph-Olivetti last Saturday (Aug. 1), leaving the verdicts of two court hearings yet to be heard.

Recent information indicates that the rulings in the main matters of the case are expected to be passed on to the Basseterre High Court with two weeks. It is also expected that another judge would be assigned shortly to finish presiding where Justice Joseph-Olivetti had finished.

Her Ladyship was the second judge to preside over the proceedings, replacing Justice Francis Belle after he recused himself upon request of counsel representing the AG and the CBC. She arrived on island last Monday (Jul. 27) and sought to deal with a number of applications in order to address the substantive matters.  

One of the major matters she dealt with last week was Contempt of Court charges brought against the AG, Hon. Dr. Dennis Merchant, and a member of the CBC, Hon. Cedric Liburd, for what the claimants called “aiding and abetting in making use of a CBC report” while a standing Court Order prohibited them from doing so. 

It was eventually determined that evidence brought against Liburd would not be admitted to the case, as the parliamentarian enjoyed a measure of immunity provided to him as a Parliamentarian. However, Justice Joseph-Olivetti decided to allow statements made by the Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas to be used as evidence in the ongoing case. 

Secondly, the AG and CBC’s legal counsel had applied to strike out a second injunction that barred the Electoral Commission and Supervisor of Elections from acting upon boundary changes suggested by the CBC report after they were approved in National Assembly.

While the new judge had stated her expectations that both matters would have been dealt within her five-day stint at the Basseterre High Court, there has been no ruling in either matter as yet. The Contempt of Court issue took four days in open court, while the hearing on the application to remove the second injunction went on for the whole of Friday (Jul. 31) in her chambers. 

Legal counsel representing the opposition party People’s Action Movement Constance Mitcham said that while her team does not wish to pre-empt the Court’s decision, they feel very confident about both cases.

“We feel that if the injunction is set aside, then the parties would not get an opportunity to argue their cases. Then the government may just call the elections on the new boundaries. The idea of the whole proceedings was to examine the procedures of changing the constituency boundaries. We wanted the Court to listen and to indicate whether the changes are actually fair and legal,” she noted.

Sylvester Anthony, legal counsel representing the AG and CBC, told SKNVibes that his team remains confident the final decision would be in their favour. He explained that his side objected to the second injunction on the grounds of “material disclosure”, explaining that information needed to put arguments into perspective was not given. He also noted that the Constitution bars the High Court from making enquiries into the report once it has already been passed as a resolution and signed by the Governor General. 

“When they applied for the injunction, there were certain material facts that were not disclosed to the Court. Among them was the fact that they had boycotted the electoral process. Once the proclamation is signed, the Constitution precludes the Court from looking into it, unless constituencies are changed,” Anthony explained.

While general elections are constitutionally due in St. Kitts-Nevis no later than March 2010, it remains uncertain whether or not any elections could be carried out until the substantive matters of the case are fully resolved.