St. Kitts Opposition wins final case against Government

The Opposition People’s Action Movement (PAM) has won its case against the Government of St. Kitts & Nevis in a series of legal actions dating back to July of this year, with the award of costs to the claimants by the High Court in Basseterre, on Friday Nov. 6.

PAM Political Leader Lindsay Grant and PM Hon Shawn Richards first challenged the constitutionality of boundary changes in July in what is now a landmark case in Caribbean jurisprudence. They had also challenged a constitutional amendment on dual citizenship.

The PAM legal team was led by Barbados Opposition Leader, Mia Mottley and included Siparia MP and former Trinidad and Tobago Attorney General Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

The team successfully argued that the boundary changes were unconstitutional and the process of producing a report on the proposed changes did not follow the legal requirements of the country's Boundaries Commission.

On October 19 Justice Errol Thomas ruled that the report was null and void and of no effect.

The opposition claim had effectively halted parliamentary elections which are constitutionally due by March 2010. The court ruling means that the government of Prime Minister Denzil Douglas can now call the election.

However the Boundaries Commission must now submit a new Report to the Parliament or the government will be forced to use the existing boundaries.

Another case brought by the claimants related to a July Amendment to the National Assembly Elections Act which PAM claimed to be unconstitutional and for which they were seeking a judgment in proceedings that started last Monday.

On Thursday Nov. 5. the government of St. Kitts & Nevis agreed with the Opposition that the National Assembly Elections (Amendment) Act was unconstitutional and passed a new amenment to the act it had passed in July.

The July Amendment to the Act, among other things, purported to require a prospective candidate for election to the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly, to provide proof of renunciation of dual citizenship on Nomination Day to be approved by a Returning Officer.

The PAM objected on the grounds that the amendment gave to a Returning Officer appointed by the Executive, a power which the Constitution reserved for the High Court.

The opposition argued that statements by the Prime Minister in Parliament and at media conferences had made it clear that the amendment was introduced to thwart the nomination at the next General Elections of the Grant and Richards who renounced their U.S. citizenship earlier in the year.

Thursday’s amendment has removed all but one minor section of the Act to which PAM objected.

Commenting on the court matter Persad-Bissessar said, "The passing of the Amendment by the Parliament...makes the matter before the Court superfluous."

She added, "They removed four and a half of the offending Sections of the Act, which we were concerned about...so to all intents and purposes we have won our case, without having to bother the Court."

Constance Mitcham, another member of the legal team, explained that the one minor part of the Act that remains now bears no relation to the parent Law or to Bill passed in the National Assembly.

"It has been left hanging in purgatory,” she quipped.

On Friday the St. Kitts Nevis High Court awarded the claimants costs against the government.

The decision is seen as a moral victory not only for the claimants and their legal team but also by politicians across the region.