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Challenging year 2012: A year in review in the Caribbean Community
In St. Kitts & Nevis, Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas is not perturbed at a motion of no confidence filed against him and his government by Opposition Leader Mark Brantley. A confident Dr. Douglas, who was unable to present his 2012-2013 national budget as scheduled in December because two of his senior ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister Sam Condor, were not attending budget meetings, said there were many other important matters to come before the parliament.
“There is a procedure that has to be followed here,” he said, adding “and so if there is a motion now to be heard, it will have to wait in line with what is the calendar of the House that is before the Speaker of the House.”
However, Mr. Brantley has written to the Speaker Curtis Martin urging that a date be set for the debate.
“I have been inundated with requests from the press and fellow Commonwealth parliamentarians as to how this motion of no confidence is progressing and I propose to keep them fully advised as to these critical developments in the life of our democracy and our National Parliament,” Brantley said.
However, the Opposition Leader may have to keep his eyes on the situation unfolding in Nevis, where Premier Joseph Parry has indicated he will call a general election to elect a new government to run the Nevis Island Administration (NIA).
Parry’s move comes in the wake of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Court of Appeal ruling on August 27, which upheld an earlier decision by the High Court that had declared the results of the July 11, 2011 Nevis Island Assembly (NIA) elections in the St John’s seat null and void.
The court has kept Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in power even as the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) kept up a relentless legal battle in 2012 to have him removed.
The UWP, through its former leader Ron Green and defeated candidate, Maynard Joseph, have filed an appeal against the January ruling by High Court judge Gertel Thom that they failed to establish a case against Skerrit and his Education Minister Petter Saint Jean. The opposition politicians have been challenging the nomination of the two government ministers who won their seats in the 2009 general election.
