The opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) says it will hold a series of public consultations with residents before Parliament debates the Government’s White Paper on the proposed third-country deportee agreement with the United States.
UPP Political Leader and the party’s sole Member of Parliament, Jamale Pringle, said the consultations are intended to give constituents an opportunity to express their views before the issue is discussed in Parliament during a special sitting expected in the week of July 13.
Although the meetings are expected to take place before the parliamentary debate, the party has not yet announced specific dates or venues.
Pringle said elected representatives have a duty to consult the people they represent before taking positions on matters of national importance.
“We operate within a representative democracy, and representatives should reflect the wishes of the people who elected them,” he said, arguing that Members of Parliament should not make decisions without first seeking the views of their constituents.
The opposition leader said the UPP plans to use the parliamentary debate to question what it considers shortcomings in the Government’s White Paper, including what it says is the absence of supporting documentation outlining the proposed arrangement with the United States.
According to the party, one of its key concerns is why relevant documents connected to the proposal have not been made available to the public.
The UPP said further details on the consultation meetings, including locations and schedules, will be announced in the coming days.
The Government last week published a White Paper outlining proposals by the United States regarding the possible reception in Antigua and Barbuda of certain third-country nationals removed from the US.
According to the Government, the document sets out the background to the discussions, the issues involved for Antigua and Barbuda, the Government’s assessment of the proposals, and the principles and conditions under which any cooperation could be considered.
The White Paper states that the matter raises issues of sovereignty, legal responsibility, public finance, national security, social stability, and Antigua and Barbuda’s international obligations.
It also emphasizes that Antigua and Barbuda, as a small state with limited resources and limited capacity, cannot responsibly accept open-ended obligations involving people who are not its nationals and whose removal is being sought by another country.
The Government has said the White Paper will be laid before Parliament during a special session expected to be convened in the week of July 13.
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A week behind, in my opinion, but better late than never (I guess).
A day late and a dollar short
Constituents will speak out, opposition will oppose, and the government will continue downplay, lie and try to convince. People we are considered Shit Hole countries by this administration, and as Shit Hole countries, Trump thinks this area is the best and easiest place to dump his shit, and what ever this Powerful man wants, he will push until he eventually gets what he wants. The debate now, is about Gaston don’t want anyone with criminal background, but I wonder if he got a glimpse of these Deportees getting on those planes? we are talking ankles and wrist fully chained, can hardly walk. As a matter of fact our local hard-core criminals are treated much humanly than these Deportees, so your request is a joke. Next up, is coming up with a way to secretly release these people on our street through some backdoor channel.
GB is the one that’s a day late and a dollar short.. he’s the one who got us here in the first place and doesn’t know how to get us out..
Debate after debate of this serious issue, and all heads, both level headed people and the most ignorant ones that come on social media,have leaned heavily towards saying no to the US.
So having a meeting by the UPP doesn’t mean a damn thing, because GB and his pigheaded self doesn’t know how to read the room or listen to sound judgment.
This thing with the US was lost way back last year, even before the US start restricting Visa’s..and those policies were implemented specifically against both Antigua and Dominica because of the corrupt practices of the CBI..and not to mention that GB gave Trump and his commanders that came here to negotiate term, the cold shoulder and act like he was the big boss in the room.
GB is a bloody pigheaded fool, and the UPP will only give him fodder to blame them with this meeting. No meeting is needed UPP, the people have already spoken. It’s not for you to clear the air, it’s for this 15-1 government.
You did the same thing with the Alpha and every other serious topic in the past, and what did you get..only to be blamed by GB and his idiot supporters for everything..do not fall for this nonsense..
Again, take my advice..let GB clean up his own mess. We don’t need more debates about a topic that’s already over debated, where the people have clearly spoken. We need GB to tell Trump a very polite no, since that he doesn’t have the smarts to negotiate any good terms on behalf of Antiguan’s.
Waste of time.
We’re back and ready cook the ABLP once again 🟨🟦🟨🟦🟨, unless the Shugy/Lewis party takes off and saves the country…
Antigua & Barbuda’s future looks bright 👌🏾
Gaston doesn’t care to hear one damn thing from the Opposition, his mind is already made up and the Ayes always have it anyway. This is just trying to get the Opposition mixed up in this mess so when the SHIT hits the fan he can blame them too. Believe me in years to come the misery will start. These people will need to to know the country better before they go on their crime spree
The EMPTYHEAD, DUNCYBAT “Little Black Boy” continues to allow the Man Cow to PAPPYSHOW his dumb ass once again
Gaston is glad for this forum or consultation the UPP is about to conduct so they get their talking points to formulate their parasitic debates later on in parliament to mock the opposition and beat their chest as knights in shining armor, what should have happen way back last year during the melee that we were heckling about Ron saunders engaging the USA government to speak on our behalf should have been scuffed at instead of just seeing it as a caricature, Ron saunders is a political appointee, Pringle is a substantive arm of the government the royal opposition, though I hate using that word “royal” and go engage in meetings abroad, present his credentials in that diplomatic setting and dialogue with embassy and state officials.
Not too late to gather a high power team involving the Senate team and two lawyers from the public, the UPP sitting there waiting for Gaston’s edicts is to be totally infantilized, the UPP would not recover from the ridiculed in that parliament that is a functionary of Gaston and ALP where all institution of the people are under a state capture operated by these corrupt politicians, and the upp cannot fall back to it’s old habits of walking out of parliament, Mr Sherfield Bowen would have been
right person we would a wish been elected to parliament to fight on our behalf today, I wonder how the young lady johnson who is the st phillip south representative feels today knowing they are useless and are only salaried employee of gaston and cannot be objective and use their intellect. Not even to defend the land of their birth against criminal invasion brought about by our prime minister due to some threats or seizure of personal funds in offshore bank and properties and shell company registered outside of Antigua that these prime ministers and politician own which the USA construed as achieved through drugs and money laundering since it is impossible for such small economy and such young men who never run any company or trading in anything what so ever could be holding cash going into the billion, so then the prime minister is bringing pressure on the people of this country to accept deportees criminals and actually sanitizing the criminals and play with the numbers to make it sound minimal to distract us from revolting against him , and he hid it and call the election because had it been known he would not be in office today, especially if Pringle had step aside and handed the leadership to Lovell.
The opposition got to fly off to Barbados embassy nearby before this parliamentary cessions to get information for the public and parliament.
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