BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Opposition legislators today boycotted the presentation of the national budget insisting that the long tabled vote of no confidence in the Dr Denzil Douglas administration be debated.
“We the majority of Elected Representatives in the National Assembly of St. Kitts and Nevis will not participate in the debate of the 2013 Budget,” the six opposition legislators, including former deputy prime minister Sam Condor and senior minister Dr Timothy Harris said in a statement.
Last week, a High Court judge set April 18 as the date for hearing arguments from lawyers representing the Speaker, Prime Minister Douglas and members of his Cabinet, after the opposition legislators filed a motion seeking to block the government from conducting any business in the National Assembly other than the national budget.
The six opposition legislators had earlier this year written to Governor General Sir Edmund Lawrence declaring that they had lost confidence in Prime Minister Douglas and his government.
The opposition legislators have scheduled a news conference “to further sensitise the people of this country to the continuing threat to democracy posed by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Denzil Douglas, and the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Curtis Martin, who have done everything to prevent the Motion of No Confidence in the government from coming to the floor of the National Assembly for debate”.
The opposition legislators warn that “this continuing, deliberate neglect by the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister and his Administration, of their obligation to ensure that the Motion of No Confidence, which was delivered to the Clerk of the National Assembly on the 11th day of December, 2012, is given the highest priority is a reckless disregard of the right of the people of this country to have a government of their choice comprising the majority of elected representatives. (CMC)
