A date has been set for the meeting between opposition parliamentarians and the Speaker of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly, the Hon. Michael Perkins.
Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas in an invited comment on Monday disclosed that the meeting will take place on Thursday 9th March.
Opposition parliamentarians walked out of the National Assembly to protest the action of Speaker Perkins not to place the No Confidence filed against him last December.
“You no doubt will appreciate that although you have made a ruling in respect of the Motion of No Confidence we submitted, your Ruling on the Motion of which you are the subject, and your refusal to have the matter debated have left a very unsatisfactory state of affairs which has the potential to create a Constitutional crisis and damage our democracy,” said the February 5th letter signed by all opposition members.
They point out that the Members of the National Assembly who sit on the opposition benches garnered 50.1% of the votes cast in the last General Elections.
“We are therefore concerned that if you are to continue with your present style and management of the Debates in the National Assembly you will disenfranchise those members of our Federation whom we represent,” said the letter.
“We ask for this meeting so that we can at least discuss the way forward,” said Leader of the Opposition, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, Labour MP – St. Christopher 6; Hon. Marcella Liburd, Labour MP- St. Christopher 2; Hon. Konris Maynard, Labour MP – St. Christopher 3. Hon. Patrice Nisbett, NRP MP – Nevis 11 and SKNLP senator Hon. Nigel Carty.
The SKNLP, led by the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, is the largest single party in St. Kitts and Nevis, gaining 11,897 votes in the February 16th 2015 General Elections. Hon. Shawn Richards’ People’s Action Movement (PAM), received 8,452 votes, the Hon. Vance Amory’s Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) 3,951 votes; the Hon. Joseph Parry’s (Nevis Reformation Party (NRP), 3,276 votes and Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris’ People’s Labour Party (PLP), 2,723 votes.
Seatwise in the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly, the PAM holds 4 seats, the SKNLP, 3 seats, the CCM, two seats and the NRP and the PLP, 1 seat each.
SKNLP, PAM and PLP did not field candidates in Nevis and the NRP and CCM did not field candidates in St. Kitts.
The government is a coalition of the PLP, CCM and PAM.