THE United Workers Party (UWP) says it has noted that on Tuesday Labour Party MPs Kenny Anthony and Moses Jn. Baptiste both publicly declined after they were nominated to perform the role of Deputy Speaker in the House of Assembly.
The UWP said that by their actions, the Labour Party had shown that they were simply playing politics with the issue and were not concerned about the role being filled. “They are obviously the ones taking the people and the House of Assembly for ‘pappyshow’ as the Constitution clearly states that one of the five MPs on the Opposition side can hold the position of Deputy Speaker,” the ruling Party said.
General Secretary of the UWP, Oswald Augustin, stated in response: “The Government did the right thing by nominating the Labour Party MPs to this role in the House of Assembly and the public can see that the Labour Party, despite their expressed concerns about there not being a Deputy Speaker, have declined to hold the role themselves. This shows that their so-called patriotism is simply for show because when called upon to perform they choose politics over the country. Now the public knows for sure that the Opposition is not concerned with the business of the House of Assembly and simply trying to score cheap points.”
The United Workers Party reminded the Opposition that the House of Parliament was a collective of the government and Opposition members, and that the criteria for being elected Deputy Speaker is that you are not a member of Cabinet or a Parliamentary Secretary. Therefore all five Opposition MPs are qualified to perform the duty of Deputy Speaker.”
The public now has to ask itself why none of the Opposition Members will accept the role of Deputy Speaker. The Labour Party showed their true colours when they declined the nomination. It is left to be seen whether the other three Opposition MPs will also decline.
In all they arrogance they make it look like the UWP, in particular Spidaer was out of his way to nominate Dr Anthony. As far as I see it, Spider is a member of parliament and its people like him who gets to nominate deputy speakers. Secondly, Dr Anthony is a member of Parliament and like all other members can be nominated. Is he too big to perform this duty?
The way I see it is that St Lucian we need to stòp opposing for party sake and Look at all the possibilities.
The Speaker was wrong to have allowed Kenny Anthony decline the nomination. He can only decline if he is incapacitated. Stlucians need to do more research and it exposes our intellect where our governance is concern. Spider was within his right to nominated a member who does not hold a ministerial portfolio. However, the stupidity came along when Pierre nominated Herod when it was clear that Herod would not qualify because he holds a portfolio.
Intellect? How stupid can you be? Why the party in the majority in the House not have left one of their own to be Deputy Speaker instead of making all non-entities like Herod a member of Cabinet…
UWP dug itself into this hole. There was a deputy speaker but I guess she is too big a literati to be deputy speaker. She resigned to take u
p s post more in keep with her calibar. Stop blaming SLP for things it didn’t do.
Perhaps as a reflection of how much trouble UWP is in and how low they operate they nominated the leader of the opposition for the post of deputy speaker. It is clear for all to see these guys have lost their way. Chastanet have to go!
…….from now and forever the labor party elites must shut their collective pie- holes on this matter!!…….