BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, APRIL 3RD 2014 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister the Right Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas has been outlining the ways in which a Governor General can appoint a Prime Minister under the 1983 Constitution.
“The Constitution outlines very specifically that the Governor General can make decisions in his own deliberate judgment as to who commands the majority only on three (3) occasions; After an election has been called and the election has directed his attention to who commands the majority of the elected representatives in the parliament; If there is a vote of no confidence taken and the Prime Minster does not step down after so many days, having lost the vote, then the Governor General according to the Constitution, in his own deliberate judgement, determines who commands the majority and so he fires the Prime Minister and a new Prime Minster is appointed. I want to make it clear, if there is something that has gone wrong and the Prime Minster is unable to perform his duties and he resigns whether by his own deliberate act or by death let us say, then of course the Governor General again exercises that right that has been giving to him under the Constitution,” said Prime Minister.
Dr. Douglas said there is no other way that a Prime Minister can be appointed by the Governor General under the Federation’s Constitution.
“This nonsense about some people being elected and crossing a floor and then because they are now a majority – they claim of elected representatives on the opposite side – that the Governor General must respond and appoint one of them as the new Prime Minster. It is a joke! It cannot happen in St. Kitts and Nevis and I want to repeat it, because people seem to think that we are making joke about this thing. I want to repeat that, that cannot happen in St. Kitts and Nevis,” Prime Minister Douglas told listeners to his weekly radio call in programme “Ask the Prime Minister.”
“No Governor General is constitutionally empowered to take that action and if that action is taken, the Labour Party will demonstrate who is in charge and who really has the majority of support in this country and that is why I said it cannot happen,” said Prime Minister Douglas, whose Labour Party remains the most popular in St. Kitts and Nevis, gaining 60 percent of the votes cast on St. Kitts, effectively, effectively giving the people the government of St. Kitts, as the island of Nevis has its own administration.