BASSETERRE, St Kitts – With less than 90 days before the end of the five-year tenure of the Team Unity government in St Kitts and Nevis, leader of the opposition, Dr Denzil Douglas is calling out prime minister Dr Timothy Harris for not giving serious attention to electoral boundaries to be used on election day.
February 16, 2020, marks the end of the full five-year term of the Team Unity government. Questioning the government’s inability to deal with the constituency boundaries matter, Dr Douglas noted that the appointment of a new chairman to head the constituency boundaries commission in November “comes in the last six months in the life of the present parliament.” The Commission has not held a meeting.
“If the last time the labour administration was so wrong in attempting to change the boundaries, (a process that started three years) before the February 15, 2015, general election, look at what is happening now? We started the exercise three years before 2015 and at every turn, we were frustrated by the then opposition, which is now in the government. They claimed then, that it was not enough time. Now for the six months and may be less, is enough time to change our boundaries … changing (2015) boundaries that have never been used? Why would the (Team Unity) change them?” asked Dr Douglas, during his weekly radio call-in programme “Ask the leader.”
After court hearings brought by the then Team Unity opposition in the High Court in Basseterre, and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Appeal Court in Saint Lucia, the Privy Council in London concluded that the proclamation bringing into existence the new boundaries for February 16, 2015, had not come in time and therefore did not govern that election.
“Therefore, the boundaries proclamation will not have effect (if otherwise valid) until the dissolution of the current Parliament elected on February 16, 2015,” the Privy Council said.
In-office since February 2015, prime minister Dr Harris and attorney general have made no real effort to resolve the matter, which has an injunction in the High Court to be settled.
“The government is really looking for the confusion. That is why I had to give the ultimatum because the government it would appear, wants to use the question of the boundaries to go beyond the anniversary date of the last elections which is February 16, 2020. I have given them two additional weeks beyond February 16, 2020, and it is up to them …,” said Dr Douglas.
“The (Team Unity) government is incompetent. The government is deceptive. The government is corrupt. It is crooked and nobody trusts this government any longer. That is why we are saying that the government time is up and it is time for the government to go,” Dr Douglas said.
Echoing the strong voice of St Kitts and Nevis voters living at home and overseas, Dr Douglas, the political leader of the St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) said it was time for the electorate to bring an end to the wreckless mismanagement of St Kitts and Nevis by the Team Unity coalition.
