St. Kitts and Nevis Labour Party National Executive Overwhelmingly Supports Government-Proposed Senators’ Bill

File Photo: Labour Party Convention

[Basseterre, December 5, 2012] By an overwhelming majority, the National Executive of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 affirmed its desire to have deliberations on “The Senators (Increasing of Number) Bill, 2012” continue at the time of the December 7, 2012 sitting of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly. All eight constituencies were represented on this occasion with the Party Leader Denzil Douglas and Deputy Leader Sam Condor, Party Chairman Timothy Harris and Party Deputy Chairman Nigel Carty as well as other members of Cabinet present throughout the proceedings. Twenty (20) members voted in favour and three (3) abstained.

The St. Kitts and Nevis 1983 Constitution not only anticipated the need for the number of Senators in the National Assembly to be changed, subject to certain conditions, but indeed made allowances for this. It is because this measure is in strict compliance with the guidelines and conditions outlined in the St. Kitts and Nevis Constitution that the Labour Government recently introduced a measure to increase the number of Senators in the National Assembly from the current three to six, and it is for these same reasons that the National Executive supports the Government in this regard.

Demographic and other changes over the past two decades have increased both the complexity as well as the volume of work that must be handled by elected Ministers and Senators, thereby necessitating the need for a slight increase in the number of Senators in Parliament at this time. We are also aware that an additional benefit of this change, as the Right Honorable Dr. Denzil Douglas has already explained, is that the addition of these Senators will simplify the process of ensuring that the position of Deputy Speaker is filled.

The St. Kitts and Nevis Parliament, as currently constituted, is comprised of eleven elected members and three senators, two of whom are on the Government benches and one, on the Opposition. Should “The Senators (Increasing of Number) Bill, 2012” pass, there will be four Senators on the Government benches, and two on the Opposition.