AG Comments on Result of Wednesday’s Vote at St Vincent

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Thursday, 26 November 2009 16:19

By CMC

Attorney General Justin Simon Thursday said he did not think that the rejection of the proposed St Vincent and the Grenadines constitution would prevent other countries in the sub-region from taking steps to adopt the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as their final court of appeal.

“I think we need to recognise that in St Vincent and the Grenadines it was a wholesale change. What we are proposing here in Antigua and Barbuda would be limited to that particular section of the constitution which would allow for the CCJ to replace the Privy Council,” he said.

The government of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves suffered a major setback after voters overwhelming rejected the new constitution in an historic referendum on Wednesday.

Preliminary figures released by the Elections Office showed that those opposed to the “home grown” constitution that the government had been pushing totalled 29,019 as against 22,493 in support.

The figures also indicated that the 55.6 per cent of the electorate sided with the New Opposition Democratic Party (NDP) that had called on voters to reject the proposed constitution that would have replaced the one handed down to the island when it gained political independence from Britain 30 years ago.

The Yes Vote campaign received 43.1 per cent of the votes cast.

Members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) must hold individual referenda before deciding on changing their individual constitutions so as to allow them to join the appellate jurisdiction of the Trinidad-based CCJ.

Simon told the CMC that the “no vote” in Wednesday’s referendum might be a setback for constitutional reform in St Vincent and the Grenadines but that the push towards adopting the CCJ will continue.

“One cannot look at it (referendum) in isolation and say that because there was a rejection in St Vincent and the Grenadines of a wholesale change with respect to the constitution...that this sends a black mark or represents a change or there would be a reluctance on our part to move in that direction,” Simon said.

But Gonsalves suggested that the rejection of the new constitution may spark reluctance among some governments to go forward.

“The governments looking at the experience in St Vincent and the Grenadines would be a little shy of going to a referendum on the CCJ at least for the time being,” Gonsalves said, adding that even in the face of defeat at the polls he did not regret taking the country though the seven-year process designed to bring about sweeping changes to the 30-year-old constitution.

“I couldn’t hang around for 10 years and allow the edifice of the remnants of colonialism to stand unchallenged. I have to test it.

“What we have done here is stuffed with nobility. That’s why this morning I don’t feel vanquished, I feel that there has been a setback and it is for people with a commitment and a passion to get meaningful and improved constitutional governance to change this setback to an advance,” he said.

Simon said the sub-region should still fully embrace the CCJ and act upon a suggestion put forward by prominent Queen Counsel Dame Bernice Lake.

“All the OECS states should go together in respect of a referendum to change that part of the constitution that deals with the Supreme Court order so that we would have what I consider to be a mass mobilisation of public opinion within the OECS.

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“…we would have the referendum the very same day in each of the territories and I think that that itself would allow for a momentum for change because clearly there would be, to my mind, a more massive mobilisation of the people,” he added.

Simon said that following the referenda, sub-regional governments should then adopt a joint position on adopting the CCJ as their final court.

 

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