BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AFTER being in the shadows for quite some time, former Minister of Agriculture and former Parliamentary Representative for Constituency Number Eight, Cedric Liburd is of the view that the injunction filed by the Hon. Shawn Richards and the Hon. Sam Condor was purely political.
Richards and Condor, on Friday, February 1, filed an injunction to block the performance of the recently-passed Increase of Senators Bill and newly-appointed Attorney-General Jason Hamilton from carrying out the functions of a Senator in the Federal House of Assembly.
Liburd spoke with this publication yesterday (Feb. 4) and expressed that he was not pleased with the action taken by his former Cabinet colleague Condor and the Leader of the People's Action Movement, Richards.
He claimed that there is no law foundation for such an injunction, noting that the Attorney-General leads an important office and his duties begins as soon as he is sworn into office.
“I realise that there is a restraining order in the Court with respect to the Attorney-General and his Office, and I am really appeased that that is being done. I see it as just being political. I don't see any foundation in law for it, but everyone has their right to appeal to the Court for any matter that they have a concern with.
“In terms of the Attorney-General, just like the office of the Prime Minister, as soon as the Prime Minister is sworn into office, immediately the Attorney-General is also sworn in to office. The Office of the Attorney-General is very important and, as you aware, the Monday when he was sworn in he was given all rights and privileges with respects to the Constitution and also Parliament,” he said.
Liburd explained that once the Oath of Office takes place then the new Member of Parliament assumes the duties bound to him or her immediately after, which is what the newly-appointed Attorney-General did.
“The matter of the Parliament, at every time any new Member to the Parliament, immediately after prayers and other matters in the Parliament, the next thing you do is take an Oath of Office - that is any new Member to the Parliament - and he has all rights and privileges from there.
“There is no date which says that he takes office six days after and after that he should have all rights and privileges. I see no injustice in having the Attorney-General and, therefore, I think this matter of the restraining order is a matter of being political and not really looking at the law and making sure that everything is in order.”
He continued: “I am saying that their arguments do not add up and every new Member of Parliament, as soon as he enters Parliament, at the earliest convenience should be sworn in, and therefore I am hoping that one would recognise that this matter is just political.”
