The Saint Lucia’s Upper House of Parliament (Senate) will tomorrow sit for the primary time since its president Stanley Felix was relieved of his senatorial duties almost two weeks ago.
After we went to press yesterday it was still unclear who will replace Felix despite the name of a long-standing female member of the Saint Lucia Labour Party, who’s currently a Senator, was being bandied around because the one who shall be the subsequent president.
At the identical time the likelihood exists that a vote for Senate president will not be forthcoming at this sitting of the Senate and that the deputy president may thoroughly be the one leading tomorrow’s proceedings.
Regarding the election of the Senate president the Structure states that “When the Senate first meets after any dissolution of Parliament and before it proceeds to the dispatch of another business, it shall elect a senator, not being a Minister or a Parliamentary Secretary, to be President of the Senate; and each time the office of President is vacant otherwise than by reason of a dissolution of Parliament, the Senate shall, not later than its second sitting after the emptiness has arisen, elect one other Senator to fill that office.”
In keeping with the parliamentary office a sitting of the Senate has been scheduled for Thursday, October twentieth, 2022 with Papers to be laid by the Honourable Parliamentary Secretary within the Ministry of Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Information and Leader of Government Business and the Honourable Parliamentary Secretary within the Ministry of Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training.
The Motions for consideration are as follows: 1. BE IT RESOLVED that Parliament do authorize the Attorney General to make an Order to declare that the 2020 Complement to the Revised Edition of the Laws of Saint Lucia, as laid out in the Order shall come into force on such date as could also be appointed by such Order, as authoritative version of the law.
2. BE IT RESOLVED that Parliament by affirmative resolution approves the draft Value Added Tax (Amendment of Schedule 3) (No. 2) Order which amends Schedule 3 of the Act to
— (a) exempt imports of non-public items, food, clothing, toys and other household consumables, contained in barrels for the period commencing from the first day of November, 2022 and terminating on the twenty eighth day of February, 2023;
(b) exempt imports of toys, food supplies and care packages by a member of the House of Assembly for the good thing about children, the vulnerable and needy individuals within the constituency of the member of the House of Assembly, for the period commencing from the first day of November 2022 and terminating on the thirty first day of January, 2023.
The next Bills are down for consideration:
1. Income Tax (Amendment)
2. Security Interest in Movable Property
3. Virtual Assets Business
4. Structure of Saint Lucia (Amendment)
5. Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment)
Thursday’s Sitting is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m.
