BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Constituency Boundaries Commission (CBC) Chairman, Anthony Johnson, was subjected to intense examination yesterday (Aug. 20), as the ongoing constituency boundaries case continued.
Johnson was the first witness to be called by the respondents in the civil suit brought by the opposition party People’s Action Movement (PAM) against the Attorney-General, CBC, Governor-General, Electoral Commission and the Supervisor of Elections.
The attorney-at-law of some 14 years was cross-examined in his position as Chairperson for the CBC, as PAM pressed for judicial review into the manner in which the Commission dealt with a report proposing changes to the constituency boundaries.
Upon the request of lead counsel for the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Mia Mottley QC, Johnson outlined the sections of the Constitution that grant authority for the CBC to regulate its own procedures. Mottley then went on to question the number of meetings that the Commission had, and enquired further into the specific discussions of the meetings.
Lead counsel for the CBC, Anthony Astaphan, objected to a string of questions asked by Mottley, arguing that they were not in line with the grounds PAM originally pleaded for the case to be reviewed upon.
After much discussion, presiding judge His Lordship Errol Thomas permitted enquiry into the manner in which the CBC dealt with the report in its entirety.
In responding, Johnson explained to the Court that the CBC was unable to meet when they were originally scheduled to because one member, Michael Perkins, was overseas for some time. Johnson said that the first meeting was held following his return.
He also informed that, as best as he could recall, there were two meetings held this year before the first official meeting of the CBC on June 5. Johnson could not remember the date of the first meeting, but suggested that it was “early in the year”. He added that the second meeting was held in May, but couldn’t recall the exact date.
When asked about what was done in the meetings, Johnson disclosed that the first meeting dealt only with housekeeping matters and the second one lasted for “no than 10 minutes”, as it was only convened to distribute the report from the CBC’s feeder committee, the Constituency Boundaries Technical Committee.
Enquiry into the deliberations and recommendations of the CBC continued for the last two hours of the cross-examination yesterday. In a number of cases when Johnson was asked to explain the recommendations of the CBC, he repeated that the minutes from the June 5 meeting “did not accurately reflect what was said”.
Mottley argued that the Commission did not follow standard meeting procedures by not confirming the June 5 minutes, a procedural recommendation that may have been suggested by member of the CBC Hon. Vance Amory. Johnson replied that the minutes were not available at that time, and that he did not require them to be available for the June 8 meeting.
Some discrepancy arose in the latter part of yesterday’s cross-examination when Johnson was questioned in relation to the time the Prime Minister, Dr. Hon. Denzil Douglas, received the CBC report.
Johnson explained that before submitting the report to the Governor-General, he visited the office of Hon. Cedric Liburd, another CBC member, on July 2. Johnson indicated that the Prime Minister came into Liburd’s office around the same time, approximately 1 p.m., and was then handed his copy of the report.
In contradiction to Johnson’s testimony, Mottley referenced a transcript of statements allegedly made by Douglas at a July press conference in which he explained that the CBC Chairman came to the Office of the PM to present the report.
The PM went on to say that having been informed earlier that the report would be handed over, he sent notice that Parliament would meet on July 3.
Although clarification was not given on the seeming discrepancy, Anthony made it clear that he did not give any notice that the report would have been presented to the Prime Minister.
He also stated that he was not in a position to speak to the Prime Minister’s version of what happened.
Court proceedings continue this morning with Beverly Harris, CBC member, and the Attorney-General, Hon. Dr. Dennis Merchant, expected to take the stand after Johnson’s examination comes to an end.
