BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Feb 5, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas Thursday welcomed the ruling of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court that had been asked to decide whether to extend an ex-parte injunction, pending a hearing requesting leave to appeal a High Court ruling handed down here last week.
Opposition legislators had sought the court ruling as they continue to oppose the holding of the February 16 general elections on the new constituency boundaries.
“I want to rejoice with the people of St. Kitts-Nevis at this time,” Prime Minister Douglas said in a brief statement broadcast on the state-owned ZIZ radio.
“I am very very joyful, I am very pleased,” Dr. Douglas said, adding,”I know the opposition is not going to accept it easily, they will go a higher court, that is their right,” he said.
Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan said that both parties had initially approached the London-based Privy Council for an emergency hearing on Tuesday in light of the Appeal Court ruling, but added “I think that will now be up to the opposition to decide if they want to go there.
“We succeeded in the High Court, the Court of Appeal on every ground,” he said, adding it is as simple as that, we won”.
He said what is now left to be done is for the politicians to engage in “fill campaign” ahead of the polls.
Nomination Day is on Friday and Prime Minister Douglas said that he wanted “to make it clear” the elections would be contested on the new boundaries.
“I want to commend our legal team for their work,” he said, describing the Court of Appeal ruling as “a massive victory”.
“All of us knew we were doing the right thing,” he said, adding “we now have to move on to a bigger victory and that is the general election”.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Thursday handed down its ruling after hearing oral arguments on the matter on Wednesday during a sitting in St. Lucia from the attorneys representing both the government and Team Unity, the grouping of opposition parties here, during a sitting in St. Lucia.
The Court of Appeal had been asked to decide whether to extend an ex-parte injunction, pending a hearing requesting leave to appeal a High Court ruling handed down here last week.
Last week, High Court judge Marlene Carter set aside an injunction barring any action from being taken on newly passed constituency boundaries, and she ruled that the signing and gazetting of the proclamation changing the boundaries was in order.
In a quickly scheduled hearing on January 29th, the opposition was granted an interim injunction by the appeal court, pending the hearing of the leave to appeal.
The date of the hearing was moved from February 9 at the request of Prime Minister Douglas.