Govt Using Legal Gymnastics

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Politics

Thursday, 14 March 2013 02:30

By Everton Barnes

Antigua St. John's - Acting Minority Leader in the Senate Arthur Nibbs is accusing the United Progressive Party government of using “legal gymnastics” to return the Citizenship by Investment Programme to the Upper House, one month after it was rejected by a majority of the senators.

Senator Nibbs’ comments came after it was clarified that the meeting of the Senate after a motion adopted on Monday by the House of Representative on the CIP will appear before the Senate, will now take place next week.

The opposition senator is taking strong objection to the return of the CIP bill to the Upper House without any changes by the House of Representatives, and also in a manner that in his view is a clear violation of the rules of parliament.

“This is nothing less than legal gymnastics, the manner in which the government is returning the CIP to Parliament,” he said. “The attorney general stated that he was not returning the bill, but a motion. My question is; what is the motion about? The CIP Bill.”

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He explained that the passage of the motion (in the House of Representatives) and its transmission to the Upper House for the senators ‘to reconsider their position on the bill’ is tantamount to returning the bill to the Senate a second time after it has been rejected by the Senate. “This clearly violates the Standing Order of the Parliament,” Nibbs said.

“Rather than make changes to the CIP bill to make it more palatable to the senators, the government is making changes to the composition of the senate,” Nibbs observed.

He also had strong words for those named to replace the two errant senators – Colin Derrick and Anthony Stuart – who were fired by the prime minister for voting against the bill.

“In my considered opinion, whoever is named to fill the vacancies created by the departure of Stuart and Derrick will be called upon to compromise their own integrity, as they are expected to vote in a particular way irrespective of what their own consciences may say. Failure to ‘do as you are told’ could earn them the same fate as the senators they replace,” he contended.

The meeting of the Senate that was first announced to take place on Thursday will now likely take place on Tuesday.

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