St. Kitts Prime Minister ponders his future

St Kitts Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas was on Monday consulting his legal advisors to determine how he should proceed, following the ruling of a High Court judge in the much-publicised battle over attempts to change constituency boundaries, according to a report on www.cananews.net.



In a 107-page judgement, Justice Errol Thomas condemned recent parliamentary manoeuvres made by the government in its bid to realign constituencies in the twin-island federation.



The judge upheld the argument put forward by the opposition People\'s Action Movement (PAM), through its leader Lindsay Grant and his deputy Shawn Richards, that the laying of the Constituency Boundaries Commission report and the issuing of a proclamation to act on the report were unconstitutional since an injunction was already in place.



But while PAM instantly claimed victory in the case, the ruling St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) later in the day began promoting a public meeting to be held Monday night saying it had secured a \"99 per cent victory\".



From the Prime Minister\'s point of view, there was no reason for the opposition party to be celebrating.



\"The claimants, the Honourable Shawn Richards and Lindsay Grant alleged that their rights under sections 3 and 10 of the Constitution and the actions of my government were in breach of their rights to free and fair elections and the protection of the law. These allegations were all rejected by the Honourable Court,\" the Prime Minister said in a statement.



\"In short, no action of my government denied them the right to free and fair elections. No action of my Government denied them the protection of the law…the Honourable Court also rejected that allegation,\" Douglas said.