Thousands of nationals and residents of St Kitts and Nevis tuned in as Freedom Fm presented the proceedings of the Privy Council on Wednesday. The case – Brantley and others (Appellants) v Constituency Boundaries Commission and others (Respondents) (St Christopher and Nevis), commonly refereed to as the boundaries matter, called on the Privy Council to provide ruling on whether the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal was correct to uphold the discharge of an interim injunction preventing the adoption of new electoral boundaries by the Prime Minister of St Christopher and Nevis.
The Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal handed down its ruling Thursday afternoon in the boundaries injunction matter. The Appeal Court Justices Davidson Baptiste, Louise Blenman and Mario Michel heard legal submissions from lawyers representing the Government of St. Kitts – Nevis and lawyers representing the opposition Team Unity alliance in St. Lucia.
The Appeal Court Justices upheld the ruling of High Court Judge Marlene Carter, who set aside an injunction barring any action from being taken on the newly passed Constituency Boundaries and she ruled that the signing and gazetting of the proclamation issued by the Governor General Sir Edmund Lawrence to change the boundaries, was in order.
Lord Goldsmith, lawyer for the Government argued that the Proclamation was properly promulgated under the provisions of the St. Kitts and Nevis constitution and the court had no right to interfere in the matter.
However, Peter Knox Q.C., lawyer for appellants, argued that the proclamation was not properly published in a gazette. He said former Deputy Prime Minister Sam Condor, a member of the opposition Team Unity, testified that he could not get a copy of the gazette from the Government Information Service, the usual agency that distributes copies, when he went to the agency on January 19.
In a brief statement on Thursday, the Privy Council handed down the judgement finding that the appeal should be allowed and set aside the judgement of her ladyship Justice Carter. The Privy Council also ordered that the boundaries that existed before January 16th are to be used during Monday’s general elections.
Speaking on Good Morning St Kitts and Nevis on Thursday before the ruling, Senior Council Anthony Astaphan disclosed that in the event that the privy council ruled against the government, the worst case scenario was to suspend the proclamation of the boundaries and determine that the elections commence on the old boundaries. Astaphan explained that it was important for the SKNLP to now win the elections. He took the opposition to task for trying to derail the process of boundary changes for years.