St. Lucia Government Describes Opposition Walk Out As “Unfortunate”

CASTRIES, St. Lucia, April 5, 2017 (CMC) – The St. Lucia government, today, described as “unfortunate” Tuesday’s walkout of parliament by opposition legislators over the failure to debate a motion regarding, the controversial Citizenship by Investment Program (CIP).

“We saw what happened in the House, yesterday, that basically fuelled the walkout by the opposition MPs,” the senior communications officer in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Nicole Mc Donald, told reporters.

She said the action was very unfortunate, insisting that the Speaker, Leonne Theodore-John, had made it a point to apologise to the Opposition legislators for not informing them earlier, that the CIP motion had been removed from the Order Paper.

“She apologised, profusely, and she also indicated to the Opposition that the matter had not been completely set aside,” Mc Donald said, adding that the Speaker had also indicated that the matter had not been swept aside, but has been deferred to a subsequent sitting of the Parliament.

Mc Donald said it is unfortunate that Opposition members walked out of Parliament and missed some of the other ‘significant’ bills that were down for discussion during the sitting.

Mc Donald said that Prime Minister, Allen Chastanet, had indicated that he needed more time to consider the matter and prepare an appropriate response to the motion.

“This does not mean that the Prime Minister and the government will not be prepared in the future to debate such a motion, presented by the opposition – it was just deferred to a future date,” Mc Donald stated.

Members of the opposition walked out, yesterday, accusing the government of abusing parliamentary procedure.

At a news conference later, Opposition Leader, Philip J. Pierre, told reporters that the United Workers Party (UWP) administration was attempting to stifle democracy in the country.

“The Opposition will not be part of that,” Pierre said, recalling that at least two months earlier, Opposition legislator, Dr. Ernest Hilaire, had informed the Speaker that a negative motion would be tabled to negate the changes made by the government to the CIP program.