St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): There was a face-to-face encounter Tuesday, between leader of the Opposition Alliance Team Unity, Dr Timothy Harris and Speaker of the National Assembly, Curtis Martin The meeting was facilitated by the head of the country’s national bank.
Team Unity has been having sporadic protests outside the bank, where the Speaker is employed. They are pushing for the tabling of a motion of no confidence in the governing Labour Party. Filed in December of 2012, the motion was the subject of a court case where Justice Darshan Ramdhani ruled that it should be tabled because there was no impediment to that being done.
Speaker Martin has made no public statement since that judgment last month, and the Team Unity protesters have been calling on him to move the process forward. Dr Harris told Winn FM that during their protest Tuesday, he got to explain the opposition position directly to the Speaker, through the intervention of the General Manager of the National Bank, Dawn Williams.
“We sat together in a room, the general manager was gracious enough to accommodate us … she asked questions about our concerns, what was the purpose of the picketing, and so on,” Dr Harris explained after that meeting inside the bank. According to the Team Unity leader, bank manager Williams was told in the presence of the Speaker that the picket was aimed at getting him to table the motion of no confidence in the parliament. “And he must give an undertaking that the motion will be laid (in parliament),” Dr Harris recalled explaining further at the meeting.
Speaker Martin while listening, made no comment during the meeting, Dr Harris told WINN FM. Dr Harris is of the view that his face to face meeting with Speaker Martin Tuesday was useful, even though it was in essence a one-sided conversation.
