BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CMC) – Leader of the opposition grouping, Team Unity, Dr Timothy Harris, yesterday defended the decision of protestors to picket the office of the Speaker of the National Assembly, Curtis Martin, as the opposition sought support for the debate on the motion of no confidence against the government of Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas.
Harris insists that the High Court ruled there were no impediments preventing the Speaker from having the motion – which had been filed more than a year ago – debated, adding that the protest action should be viewed as a motivation for the Speaker doing the right thing.
“Any security concerns which the Speaker may have…will come from his failure to do the right thing,” Harris said, adding “the longer he stops…doing the right thing he will create an unease in the country and greater instability”.
The picketing is the latest twist in the ongoing battle by members of “Team Unity” an amalgamation of three opposition parties that control six of the 11 seats in the Parliament, to get the Speaker to place on the Order Paper, the motion of no confidence.
Harris said that the actions of the Speaker in light of the recent court ruling were further indication that democracy was being subverted in the twin-island Federation.
Earlier this month, both the government and opposition claimed victory after a High Court judge delivered a 70-page ruling in the case regarding the motion of no confidence.
The High Court ruled that the original motion filed by the opposition legislators, including two former senior government ministers, would be allowed to continue against the Speaker.
The other defendants, including Prime Minister Douglas and members of his Cabinet, have been removed as parties to the originating motion. The Court ruled that there was no evidence Douglas or his ministers had prevented the Speaker from having the motion tabled.
Last week, Prime Minister Dr Douglas said his administration would await the outcome of the court ruling on the motion of no confidence.
Speaking on his weekly radio programme Ask the Prime Minister, Dr Douglas told listeners that the “case remains in court and we respectively await the court’s final ruling”.
He said the substantive matter of the motion of no confidence was still sub judice.
