BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CHAIRPERSON of the ruling St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, the Hon. Marcella Liburd said the government's belief is that when the boundaries case should have ended, the proposed changes to the constitutional boundaries would stand.
Earlier today (Nov. 25) at the Basseterre High Court, His Lordship Justice Darshan Ramdhani informed of his decision to not only uphold the injunction but to have the substantive boundaries matter heard by the Court.
Liburd, in response to this decision, said: "We believe that in the end the recommended changes will stand. Thereby ensuring that no one person’s vote in any constituency will have dramatically greater weight than a vote in any other...and that no longer will any one Parliamentary Representative be responsible for meeting the needs of a constituency in which the number of inhabitants residing in that constituency is dramatically greater than the number of inhabitants in any other."
Minister Liburd – who also holds the position of Parliamentary Representative for St. Christopher Two – reminded of the blessing which St. Christopher and Nevis enjoys in a democratic society.
“Let us all continue in our own ways then to preserve and enhance all that we in this nation have built. And may we be ever mindful of how blessed we are to live in a nation in which our laws are made by our Parliament…our disputes are settled by a Judiciary that is independent, and our Governments are chosen by the ballot.”
On September 9, 2013, there was Parliamentary approval for the realignment of the constitutional boundaries proposed by the Constitutional Boundaries Commission.
The Opposition in the House however, having disapproved the Commission’s report, filed for an injunction in the Court which was granted, staying the hand of the Governor General from signing any proclamation drafted in accordance with the report.
The Court ruled in favour of the Opposition, upholding the injunction, and has further ruled that the substantive matter is to be heard.
