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As the St.Kitts-Nevis Parliament is set to meet on Friday April 17th, 2020 , the Opposition St.Kitts-Nevis Labour Party /NRP finds itself in internal turmoil as the elected members of Parliament on the Opposition side are unwilling to support any one but him or herself as Opposition Leader . Hence no member of the Opposition benches can command the support of one other to have one of them appointed leader of her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition . .The Opposition MP’s currently sitting are Hon. Konris Maynard, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Hon. Marcella Liburd and Hon. Patrice Nisbett of the NRP .
Justice Pereira and 2 other Judges in a historic judgement asked former Opposition Leader Dr. Denzil Douglas to immediately vacate his seat after he accepted allegiance , obedience , adherence to the government and people of Dominica when he applied for and was given a Diplomatic Passport of Commonwealth of Dominica while a sitting MP of the St.Kitts-Nevis parliament . The then Opposition Leader and St.Kitts-Nevis MP Douglas essentially served as an Ambasaador for Dominica with a diplomatic passport of that country whilst sitting as an MP in the SKN Parliament. The Court confirmed that this violated the constitution and the action disqualified Douglas as a legal standing MP.
By law the Governor-General is obliged to support a Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament from among Opposition Members . Three Opposition members Hon. Marcella Liburd, Hon. Patrice Nisbett, Hon. Konris Maynard have failed to gather the support of any other member hence none qualifies as Leader of the Opposition.
MP’s Maynard and Liburd made it clear they would not support Hon. Patrice Nisbett , the longest serving MP currently sitting on the Opposition benches. Similarly MP Maynard has refused to support his party’s Deputy Leader Hon. Marcella Liburd and Liburd has flatly refused to support the much younger MP Maynard.
The Factions in the Labour Party are widely known with Maynard and Douglas leading separate factions within the party. Douglas has already iidentified Dr. Terrance Drew as his heir apparent as leader of the party. However Drew is not an elected MP and according to all recent polls it seems very unlikely that he will be able to defeat veteran MP Hon. Eugene Hamilton. It is widely speculated that after the upcoming elections Dr. Douglas will resign and make way for Drew in his #6 Constituency.
With the ongoing turmoil on the Oppositon benches the Governor-General maybe forced to select the MP who he, in his own deliberate judgement, thinks will command the support of the majority of the Opposition members.
The first sitting since Dr. Douglas was booted as an MP takes place on Friday April 17th . At that sitting we might get a glimpse of what will happen as far as the occupation of the office of the Opposition Leader.