The United Progressive Party has signalled that its dispute with the Senate President over the seating of Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle at the Throne Speech will continue beyond the ceremony itself, with Senate Minority Leader Chester Hughes pushing back against characterisations of the walkout.

Speaking on Observer Radio following the walkout from the May 26 Throne Speech sitting, Hughes told listeners that the opposition senators had not entered Parliament that morning with any intention of leaving.

“Today was not a day that any of us left our home with the anticipation of walking out of the Parliament,” he said.

Hughes placed responsibility for the disruption on Senate President Alincia Williams-Grant, saying that it was the chair’s decision that brought confusion into a standard process.

He questioned what he said was the absence of any malice on Pringle’s part in attending the sitting, noting that the chamber routinely accommodates Commissioners of Police, judges, and other officials at such ceremonial occasions.

The Minority Leader said the question of asking the Leader of the Opposition to leave the chamber should not have arisen at all.
Hughes maintained that the opposition’s departure was not an act of resistance to the chair’s authority but standing with their political leader.

“If the oath wasn’t going to be administered, then I cannot participate, so it would make no sense for me to stay there,” he said.

The walkout earlier today followed after Senate President Williams-Grant declined to permit Pringle to be seated for the Throne Speech on the grounds that he had not yet taken the parliamentary oath of allegiance required under Section 48 of the Constitution.

The four sworn Opposition Senators Hughes, Jonathan Wehner, Ashworth Azille, and Malaka Parker left the chamber before Governor-General Sir Rodney Williams delivered the Speech.

Pringle, the Member-elect for All Saints East and St. Luke, missed the first sitting of the House of Representatives on May 18 while off island accompanying his minor daughter for a medical procedure in the United States.

The UPP confirmed his absence in a statement issued at the time, indicating that he would take the oath at the next ordinary sitting of the Lower House.

Barbuda People’s Movement Member of Parliament Trevor Walker was also absent from the May 18 sitting and the Throne Speech.

The Constitution under Section 48 provides that no member of either House shall take part in the proceedings of that House until the oath of allegiance has been made and subscribed before that House, with the only exception permitting participation in the election of presiding officers prior to the oath being taken.

In its press release, the UPP claimed that democracy was under threat and that the opposition bench views the events of the morning as collusion between the Senate President and government members of the Lower House.

The next ordinary sitting of the House of Representatives, at which Pringle is expected to take the parliamentary oath, has not yet been publicly confirmed.