Minority Leader – By Latrishka Thomas
Minority Leader Promises Fierce
Don’t let the numbers fool you. That was the message from Senate Minority Leader Chester Hughes as 16 senators were sworn into the Upper House, with the United Progressive (UPP) Party holding just four seats against the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party’s (ABLP’s) eleven.
“Do not underestimate 11 to 4,” Hughes declared defiantly during yesterday’s inaugural sitting. “The four on this side representing the Leader of the Opposition will make the 11 very concerned as to how they debate.”
Hughes made it clear that his team did not intend to simply show up and go through the motions, pledging a principled, research-driven opposition that would hold the government to account on policy rather than politics.
“We will not be given papers to come to this House to read and to support,” he said. “I’ve already advised my team that proper research must be done in order for us to present to this nation what is right and principled for Antigua and Barbuda. The politics is over; the work begins.”
The Senate Minority Leader also framed his team’s role in constitutional rather than combative terms. “If we have to send a Bill back to the Lower House, we must send it back with the respect that we have a challenge with that Bill and not that we oppose the Bill,” he said. “We will criticize constructively; we will criticize with a sense of purpose and national pride.”
Yesterday, 11 government-appointed senators — (Philip Shoul, Shenella Govia, Kendra Beazer, Colin O’Neil Browne, Lamin Newton, Angelica O’Donoghue, Shaquan O’Neil, Joel Rayne, Abena St. Luce and Tiffany Strann-Peters), four opposition senators (Chester Hughes, Malaka Parker, Ashworth Azille and Jonathan Wehner), and one Independent senator (Jamilla Kirwan) — took the oath of allegiance. The seat reserved for a Barbuda Council nominee remains vacant, with that appointment yet to be announced.
Senate President Alincia Williams-Grant was also formally re-elected to preside over the chamber, with Senator Philip Shoul returning as Vice President.
Much of the session’s opening energy centred on the chamber’s increasingly youthful composition. Williams-Grant singled out two young senators in particular — Government Senator Shaquan O’Neil and Opposition Senator Jonathan Wehner, both products of the country’s Youth Parliament. “I’m almost tearful to see Shaquan and Jonathan here,” she said.
“As a child we hear the youth are the future of tomorrow; they are present now, they have a voice, they have a contribution to make,” she said, visibly moved.
Vice President Shoul echoed that sentiment directly, addressing the two young senators from the floor.
“It is your time to shine,” he told them. “It’s not my time … it is your time to shine. Make a difference in Antigua and Barbuda.”
Hughes also singled out the younger members for a specific charge, urging them to bridge the gap between legislative work and everyday citizens.
“I challenge the younger senators in this Honourable House to look into the interests of the young people of this country and explain to them how the bills that we will pass affect their lives and livelihoods,” he said.
Meanwhile, on gender representation, Williams-Grant did not shy away from hard numbers. While noting that seven of the Senate’s 17 seats are now held by women — roughly 41 percent — she stressed that the Lower House tells an even more troubling story.
She issued a direct challenge to the network of women parliamentarians saying: “Don’t put on your colours and say I’m not being a part of it. Put on your hat as a nationalist, as a feminist, if you choose to identify with that terminology, as a woman … to say we need to do better in representation.”
She also expressed hope that the vacant Barbuda Council seat would be filled by a young woman, saying the island has “very effective and positive young women” who are ready to contribute.
Leader of Government Business Senator Shenella Govia celebrated the five women on the government benches, framing it as a reflection of the ABLP’s institutional values.
“The Antigua Barbuda Labour Party, we are an institution of empowerment and an institution of opportunity,” she said, pointing to the trajectory of former senators who now sit in the Lower House as evidence of the party’s pipeline.
The Senate is expected to begin its substantive legislative business in the coming weeks.
