Thousands of St. Kitts – Nevis Nationals and residents got the word on Freedom FM from Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan in St. Luca and Sylvester Anthony, that the boundaries injunction filed by team unity had been discharged.
The Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal handed down its ruling Thursday afternoon in the boundaries injunction matter. The Appeal Court Justices Davidson Baptiste, Louise Blenman and Mario Micheal heard legal submissions from lawyers representing the Government of St. Kitts – Nevis and lawyers representing the opposition Team Unity alliance in St. Lucia.
The Appeal Court Justices upheld the ruling of High Court Judge Marlene Carter, who set aside an injunction barring any action from being taken on the newly passed Constituency Boundaries and she ruled that the signing and gazetting of the proclamation issued by the Governor General Sir Edmund Lawrence to change the boundaries, was in order.
On Wednesday, February 4th the Appeal Court heard legal arguments from government lawyers followed by the Team Unity lawyers until 9pm that night. Earlier, the Appeal Court had moved the date of the hearing from February 9th to 4th at the request of Prime Minister Douglas, as nomination day was set for February 6th.
On Thursday Senior Counsel Astaphan spoke to Freedom Fm’s “Issues” and indicated that the government team was victorious in getting the Injunction discharged, clearing the way for using the new boundaries in the February 16th General Elections.
The Court of Appeal emphatically rejected the arguments put forward by the Team Unity lawyer.