Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has brushed aside plans by the main opposition St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) to file a motion of no confidence in his ruling United Workers Party (UWP) administration.
“Very rarely do you see it succeed. I am confident that this one will have no success other than (the opposition) calling attention to themselves,” Chastanet told reporters.
SLP and Opposition leader Phillip J. Pierre last week announced that the opposition would file the motion and would await a date from the Speaker to debate the motion.
The UWP controls 11 of the 17 seats in the Parliament and Pierre acknowledged that all six opposition legislators would be voting for the motion, adding “we will leave each minister to his conscience”.
But Chastanet told reporters “any parliamentarian can call for a vote of no confidence,” recalling that motions of no confidence have been presented on several occasions in the Caribbean.
The announcement by the SLP leader to file a motion of no confidence comes after the party staged a massive demonstration in the capital earlier this month with supporters calling on Prime Minister Chastanet, who returned to the island recently from a three week vacation, to call fresh general elections claiming that his policies were hurting the socio-economic development of the island.
“The next step now is that Her Majesty’s loyal opposition will now use the legal tools that are available to us. We are going to indict the government in Parliament,” Pierre said, adding that all government legislators would have to give an account of their stewardship since coming to office.
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