Privy Council: St. Kitts/Nevis elections to be held on old constituency boundaries
The report said that in an oral Judgment, delivered just after 10 o’clock Eastern Caribbean Time, the Privy Council ruled that Orders made by the Appeal Court and High Court be set aside and that the interim injunction granted on January 16, 2015 by High Court Judge Marlene Carter be restored.
“The Board will humbly advise Her Majesty that the Appeal should be allowed. That the Orders made by Madame Justice Marlene Carter on the 27th January 2015, and by the Court of Appeal on 5th February 2015, be set aside and the interim injunction granted by Madame Justice Carter on 16th January, 2015 be restored,” the report said.
According to the WINN report, "it is determined and ordered that, firstly, the list to be used in the said election is and shall be that existing prior to and apart from the Proclamation bearing the Reference # 2 of 2015, purportedly issued and published by the Governor General in Extraordinary Gazette #3 bearing the date 16th January, 2015.”
Government lawyers had argued that High Court Judge Marlene Carter ruled that the Proclamation was duly published and that Attorney-General Jason Hamilton had submitted an affidavit to that effect.
Opposition lawyers argued that the events of January 16, 2015 were calculated to deny the Opposition access to the court and as such was designed to remove their right to protection under the law.
On Friday January 16, 2015 an Emergency Sitting of Parliament was convened at close to 4.15 pm, moments after the Constituency Boundaries Commission signed, by majority vote, new constituency boundaries.
In less than three hours that day, a Proclamation was put before Speaker Curtis Martin in the National Assembly, approved by the government benches, signed by the Governor General Sir Edmund Lawrence, reportedly published in the Official Gazette, and a Proclamation for the Dissolution of Parliament was signed by Sir Edmund and read from the steps of Government Headquarters, on Church Street, by Prime Minister Dr. Denzil L. Douglas.
Opposition parliamentarians expressed outrage that they received notice of the meeting just minutes before Parliament was convened. They also decried the conduct of Speaker Martin who they claimed ignored their constitutional right to fully debate the Proclamation.
Visiting the Territory of the Virgin Islands in December 2014, Head of the Team UNITY coalition Dr Timothy S. Harris at a press conference spoke of some of the atrocities of the Douglas administration and of its disregard for the will of the people of St Kitts and Nevis. He also outlined some of the plans that Team UNITY has for the country and how it is that people would benefit from a change in the government of St Kitts and Nevis.
For example he spoke of the Douglas administration's disregard for a Motion of No Confidence brought against his Government two years ago and the way in which they have managed the country’s Citizen by Investment programme, opening the country to abuse of its citizenship privileges by persons otherwise ineligible to travel to the US or Canada and causing the visa free entry to Canada to citizens of St Kitts and Nevis to be withdrawn.
He said that one of the first orders of business for Team UNITY when in government is to restore good relations with Canada and the benefits that derive from it.
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