Charlestown, Nevis( Monday, June 19, 2017) In light of the Nevis Island Assembly not meeting yet for 2017 and other wrongdoings, the Opposition Leader, Hon. Joseph Parry has written a letter to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) to intervene on a host of ills taking place with Parliamentary and Public Accounts practices by the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) led Administration.
Letter to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA)
The letter appeals for a delegation to visit Nevis and intervene in the distressing circumstances surrounding the Nevis House of Assembly. Parry said that the impertinent behavior that the CCM has revealed to the people of Nevis by participating in Parliament in St. Kitts and not in Nevis is very disrespectful and very telling of the lack of opinion that the CCM have for its residents.
“The House of Assembly is where the issues and people’s business should be handled regularly,” stated Parry in the letter.
Parry believes that while the St. Kitts- Nevis Constitution gives the government the authority to call Parliament, he firmly believes that the framers of the Constitution could never have intended that such authority be used arbitrarily, or as a tool to refrain from going to the “People’s House”.
Hon. Parry stated in the communication, ”I and many residents of Nevis are infuriated by this matter as this has been the longest time I can remember Parliament NOT taking place in Nevis in the last 20 years. Have the reasons for no meetings been because the island of Nevis has been abandoned by the Premier and Deputy Premier of Nevis?”
Parry concluded that as a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Nevis House of Assembly and the Public Accounts Committee “need to be investigated immediately” with the use of its offices, together with the entire weight of the Association to intervene so that there can be a return to normalcy.