The new Unity Labour Party administration will be sworn into office today, Tuesday, during a ceremony at Heritage Square, Kingstown at 4:30 p.m.
There has been much speculation about the composition of the new cabinet, but Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has already announced that it will include three first-time MPs.
Curtis King, Orando Brewster, and Carlos James, MPs for West St. George, Central Leeward and North Leeward, will be given Cabinet-level positions, the prime minister said last week.
The cabinet will also include MP for North Windward, Montgomery Daniel, who was elected to a fifth consecutive term in office in Thursday’s polls and was sworn in as deputy prime minister last Saturday.
Jaundy Martin, a public servant, was returned as Attorney General, having been sworn in last Saturday at the same time as the prim minister and his deputy.
The ULP was returned to an historic fifth consecutive term in office on Thursday, winning the election by nine seats to six against the main opposition New Democratic Party.
The ULP now holds one seat more than it did after the 2010 and 2015 elections.
Let’s see if Luke and Julian are out now. I am looking at the deputy leadership position.
Montgomery Daniel cannot possibly be Deputy Prime Minister there is no such position in the Constitution.
Under the terms of the 1979 Constitution of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, it is not Constitutional and therefore not legal to select, appoint, any person and swear them in as a Deputy Prime Minister. There is no such provision in the Constitution; the ULP Government has no right to present a person to be Deputy Prime Minister as they have done by asking the Governor-General swear in North Windward member of Parliament Montgomery Daniel.
The Constitution only allows for three Deputy positions, Deputy to Governor-General, Deputy Speaker, and Deputy Commissioner of Police.
If there were any intention by the draftsmen of the 1979 Constitution to include such a position and title in the Constitution, they would have made provision within the Constitution Deed for the position of Deputy Prime Minister. There is no provision for such a role. If a Deputy Prime Minister were required the political masters at the time would have insisted that the position of Deputy Prime Minister be included in the Constitution, they did not. In fact, by excluding it compounds the reasoning that they deliberately did not want to have such a position or office.