Opposition Leader Phillip J. Pierre says his motion of no confidence filed last year against the St. Lucia government, will now be debated next week
“I am pleased to announce that last time I spoke to the Speaker, he told me that the motion of no confidence in the Prime Minister (Allen Chastanet) will be debated on 29th January, 2019,” Pierre told a news conference Wednesday.
“However, one should not be surprised if there are continuous efforts to frustrate the process by the Prime Minister,” he added.
Pierre said he wanted all St. Lucians to listen attentively to the debate and urge their parliamentary representatives to vote in favour of the motion.
The ruling United Workers Party (UWP) won 11 of the 17 seats in the Parliament when it ousted the St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) in the June 2016 general election.
Pierre, in his statement, dubbed “Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide,” said that since the motion of no confidence had been presented to the Clerk of Parliament in November last year, Prime Minister Chastanet and his public relations people have been thrown into a ‘tail spin.
“First they tried to ridicule the motion, but this failed because motions of no confidence were also presented in St. Kitts-Nevis, Guyana and England. It should also be noted that in the last parliamentary term in Barbados, then Leader of the Opposition and current Prime Minister Mia Mottley had also presented a motion of no confidence in the Parliament,” Pierre told reporters.
He said that having failed in the attempts at ridiculing the motion, the government has now devised a self-promotion and “project dazzle and bluff plan” in an attempt to hoodwink the population.
“So the Prime Minister suddenly gives his first New Year address in three years and makes pronouncements which all of us know are not factual.
“Then the Prime Minister and his public relations people suddenly start announcing the start of projects which were stalled for the last two and a half years, but with only designs and plans but no processes to ensure accountability and transparency,” Pierre said, adding that none of these initiatives have stopped the momentum relating to the upcoming debate.
“St. Lucians both home and aboard are taking a keen interest in the upcoming debate. They are anxious to see if any minister would vote with their conscience and register their vote against the policies of the Prime Minister,” Pierre told reporters.
