BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MEMBERS of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the Federal Assembly earlier today (Jul. 8) removed themselves from the august body in protest against the fact that neither of the Motions of No Confidence which they filed would be tabled and debated today.
Parliament convened this morning shortly before 11:00 a.m. with its full complement of Opposition Members – including the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris and the Hon. Sam Condor – and all Members on the Government Benches.
An attempt was made by the Leader of the Opposition – the Hon. Mark Brantley –to have the Order Paper amended to include the tabling of the Motion of No Confidence, but the Speaker, in a prepared statement, ruled that they would not be tabled today and gave reasons for his ruling.
“Mr. Speaker, in light of the fact that we on the Opposition Benches constitute a majority of the elected representatives in this Parliament, we consider that any procedure in this Parliament that does not take into account the Motion that has been on the floor for well over seven months, is not a Parliament that we would wish to associate ourselves with. So, we have nothing that we can contribute to this House or to this debate until such time as this Motion, testing the confidence of this House in the government, is dealt with.”
This was the declaration made by Brantley just moments before he led his Opposition team out of the confines of the Parliament.
On the outskirts of Government Headquarters, SKNVibes met members of the Opposition who further explained reasons for their actions.
Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher Eight, the Hon. Eugene Hamilton explained that “we are protesting the fact that the Motion of No Confidence has been denied us another time despite the fact that there is no impediment to it being tabled.
“We think that the Speaker’s ruling is biased and partial...obviously biased in my review. And the Speaker must know that a Motion has been filed since December of last year and, six months after, government is continuing as if nothing has happened. That must change! And so that’s why we are protesting. We have walked out because we don’t want to participate in anything other than the Motion of No Confidence”.