BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-PRIME MINISTER Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has chosen to remain tight-lipped as to whether or not the constituency boundaries in St. Kitts-Nevis will be changed before the upcoming General Election.
Speaking at his monthly press conference yesterday (Oct. 21), Douglas explained that the Government had filed appeals to two standing injunctions launched by the People’s Action Movement in July, which would have prevented the calling of General Elections under new constituency boundaries outlined in a report filed by the Constituencies Boundaries Commission (CBC).
However, Monday’s (Oct. 19) ruling by His Lordship Justice Errol Thomas stated that a Proclamation passed through Parliament in July for new boundaries based on the CBC report was “null and void” due to the manner in which it was compiled being unconstitutional.
Because the injunctions that were filed were directly related to the Proclamation and the Proclamation no longer stood due to the judge’s ruling, the PM said his legal team had decided to strike the appeals they had filed against the injunctions.
“Although we believed it was academic, we believed it was absolutely necessary to write to the Court of Appeal and indicate that we no longer had an interest, so we wanted to withdraw the appeals.
“Once that would have been cleared, on the 2nd [of November] hopefully, then the deck, we would have believed, would have been cleared for the calling of elections,” Douglas said.
When asked if he had been planning to call elections under the existing constituency boundaries or if he would be waiting for the CBC to file a new report so Parliament could pass a new Proclamation ahead of the election, the PM assured that CBC is still important.
“[The CBC’s] work has remained largely incomplete. There is the serious issue of the inequality in the sizes of the constituencies. Given the weight of the Commonwealth observer team’s initial advice is still there, …we felt that the Constituencies Boundaries Commission having not yet completed the exercise…should be allowed to complete its work.”
However, he also said that as the Prime Minister he has the “constitutional responsibility” to call elections when he sees fit, whether the boundaries have been reassessed or not.
“I have the constitutional right to call the elections any time. I think it is a mandate that my government has [to reassess the nation’s boundaries], but I also have the constitutional responsibility…to call the elections when I think it is right to call the elections,” Douglas said.
If the CBC did decide to compile a new report for a new Proclamation to be based upon, Attorney-General Hon. Dr. Dennis Merchant said that they would legally be able to use all of their previously compiled data, except that which came from the Boundaries Technical Committee, which was deemed “unconstitutional” as a part of Justice Thomas’ ruling.
