Opposition Prepares For Legal Battle

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Politics

Wednesday, 18 July 2012 02:30

By Everton Barnes

Antigua St. John's - The opposition Antigua Labour Party is preparing for what is shaping up to be another major legal battle: this time over the proposed realignment of constituency boundaries on Antigua.

That’s the word of senior legal adviser to the ALP, Anthony Astaphan, who has successfully fought similar legal battles in at least three other OECS territories, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Kitts-Nevis.

Astaphan has confirmed that he has held meetings with members of the party executive, individual members as well with the party’s Political Leader, Lester Bird on the issue.

“Following my meetings with members of the ALP and the Political Leader, my clear instructions are to stop any wrongdoing by the (governing) United Progressive Party over the allocation of boundaries that that are being proposed,” he stated.

Astaphan said one of the current difficulties facing the ALP is that the government’s true intentions are still unclear, as very little official information is coming out from the commission where the government names the majority of the members.

“We are progressing quite well and we are making significant headway, but one of the things we are faced with is that we do not know what it is that is motivating the majority of the members of the commission.

“There is no question that there is some degree of public information on what they intend to do and the fact that we have been speaking along those lines, without any formal information, material or data on exactly what it is they intend to do.

“There has been no public consultation and this raises some very, very serious fear and concern about what it is that the majority intends to do,” the noted attorney declared.

Astaphan is urging the ALP to be ready even though he noted that the silence coming from the committee may well have been influenced by the public outcry after the details of the proposed boundary changes were made public.

“It may well be that, as some have suggested, because of our public statements, it may have slowed down their train a bit, and they would seek to modify the direction of the train. But whatever change they intend or (are) prepared to do, we have to be ready for it,” Astaphan added.

The attorney also expressed concern over the suggestion that the 2010 amendment to the Representation of the People Act that calls for re-registration of voters may very well dis-enfranchise many who are now currently on the list, but who would not meet the new qualification requirements of the new law.

He expressed the view that this legislation has constitutional significance as he doesn’t believe that a person, who qualified to vote under one law, can then be disenfranchised under a subsequent law.

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