Litigant confident court challenge to MP Smith’s parliamentary ‘independence’ will be successful

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By Tahna Weston

[email protected]

One of the All Saints West constituents who has mounted a legal challenge to Anthony Smith becoming an Independent Member of Parliament, has spoken publicly for the first time on this decision to challenge the independence of the former United Progressive Party (UPP) Member of Parliament (MP).

During a UPP rally in Sea View Farm on Thursday night, Eversleigh Warner expressed confidence of being successful in the court challenge.

Warner said he voted for Smith, now a member of the Gaston Browne Cabinet, because he ran on the ticket of the opposition party.

“I am here on a particular issue. I was born in April; I wasn’t born on April 1st; I wasn’t born on All Fools Day. When I casted my vote during the last election, I casted it for a man who said to me that he is representing the UPP.

“I want to make another statement that all my life, my plenty years I have never ever been a supporter of the Antigua Labour Party, never ever, I’m from Swetes. So when I casted my vote and voted for the representative, the person who said he was representing All Saints West on a UPP ticket I was satisfied,” Warner said.

He added that in voting for Smith and in essence sending him to Parliament, he placed him there to represent him on the UPP ticket and not as an independent candidate.

Referring to his vote as sacred, the Seaview Farm villager said he never expected Smith to join the Labour Party Cabinet, to which he added he takes umbrage.

“Now, if you wanted to be independent, come to the constituency before the election and say, I am running as an independent candidate. I wouldn’t have voted for you because my vote was for a UPP candidate. 

“So, therefore, you cannot, in all fairness, take my vote and say, I am now independent. Says who? Did you come to the constituents and say, ‘okay, I’m not satisfied with what is going on in the UPP, so I’m going independent’. All right, you can do that of your own volition. But you cannot then leave the legislature and become a part of the executive, in whose interest?” Warner asked.

“When you do that, it means that you are there at the behest of the Gaston Browne administration. I didn’t send you to Parliament for that.” 

Warner said that Smith has shattered the trust of those who elected him in All Saints West, and therefore he believes that the court judgment will be handed down in favour of him and his two counterparts.

“Therefore, I am representing you, the constituents, myself and two others, to ask the court to make a decision as to what independence is. Can you be independent on one hand and then on the other hand, you’re gone over, gone swear secrecy. 

“You have taken what you gleaned while a member of the UPP gone over and share it with the comrades. No, I can’t stand for that. So I want the court to decide what is independent. Furthermore, we are expecting the court to rule in our favor, yes, and declare the seat vacant, by which time or subsequently, there will be a by-election and you can run on an ALP ticket if you want to.

Warner is speculating that if the court declares the All Saints West seat vacant, Prime Minister Gaston Brown will not call a by-election, but will instead call a general election.

The legal battle between MP Smith — who is now the Minister of Agriculture — and his constituents was called up in the High Court on October 8.

However, it has been postponed; and High Court Judge Justice Jan Drysdale has adjourned the case to November 5.

During the next hearing the court expects that Smith’s lawyers and those representing the government would have filed their responses.

The legal action challenging Smith’s independence as the All-Saints West Member of Parliament was filed after he left the Party in July. 

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