Transitional Provisions

Until such time as a person has assumed office as Governor-General having been appointed as such in accordance with section 19 of the Constitution, the person who immediately before the commencement of the Constitution held office as Governor of Saint Lucia (or, if there is no such person, the person who was then acting as Governor) shall discharge the functions of the office of Governor-General.

2.- Existing laws

(1) the Existing laws shall, as from the commencement of the Constitution, be construed with such modifications, adaptations, qualification and exceptions as may be necessary to bring them into conformity with the Constitution and the Supreme Court Order.

(2) Where any matter that falls to be prescribed or otherwise provided for under the Constitution by Parliament or by any other authority or person is prescribed or provided for by or under an existing law (including any amendment to any such law made under this section), that prescription or provisions shall, as from the commencement of the Constitution, have effect (with such modifications, adaptations, qualification and exceptions as may be necessary to bring it into conformity with the Constitution and the Supreme Court Order) as if it had been made under the Constitution, by Parliament or, as the case may require by the other authority or person.

(3) The Governor-general may be order made at any time before 31st December 1980 make such alterations to any existing law as may appear to him to be necessary or expedient for bringing that law into conformity with the provisions of the Constitution and the Supreme Court Order or otherwise for giving effect or enabling effect to be given to those provisions.

(4) The provision so of this paragraph shall be without prejudice to any powers conferred by the Constitution or by any other law upon any person or authority to make provision for any matter including the alteration of any existing law.

(5) For the purposes of this paragraph, the expression "existing law" means any Act ordinance, rule, regulation, order of other instrument made in pursuance of or continued in force by or under the former constitution and having effect as a law immediately before the commencement of the Constitution.

3.- Parliament

(1) Until other constituencies are established for Saint Lucia by order in pursuance of section 58 of the Constitution and the order has come into effect there shall, for the purposes of the election of members of the House, be seventeen constituencies having the same boundaries as the constituencies into which Saint Lucia is divided immediately before the commencement of the Constitution of for the purposes of the election of elected members of the House under the former Constitution and those constituencies shall be deemed to have been established under that section.

(2) The persons who, immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, are elected member of the House under the former Constitution shall, as from the commencement of the Constitution, be deemed to have been elected in pursuance of the provisions of section 33 of the Constitution in the respective constituencies corresponding to the constituencies by which they were returned to the House and shall hold their seat in the House in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

(3) The persons who, immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, are nominated members of the House under the former Constitution shall vacate their seats in the House at the commencement of the Constitution but shall be eligible for appointment as Senators in pursuance of the provisions of section 245 of the Constitution.

(4) The persons who immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, are respectively the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker and the Leader of the Opposition shall be deemed as from the commencement of the Constitution to have been elected as Speaker and Deputy Speaker or, as the case may be, appointed as leader of the Opposition in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and shall hold office in accordance with those provisions.

(5) Until Parliament otherwise provides , any person who hold or acts in any office the holding of which would, immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, have disqualified him for membership of the House under the former Constitution shall be disqualified to be elected as a member of the House or appointed as a Senator as though provisions in that behalf had been made in pursuance of section 26 and 32 of the Constitution.

(6) The rules of procedure of the House under the former Constitution as in force immediately before the commencement of the Constitution shall, until it is otherwise provided by the House under section 53(1) of this Constitution, be the rules of procedure of the House but they shall be construed with such modifications, adaptations, qualification and exceptions as may be necessary to bring them into conformity with the Constitution.

(7) Subject to the provisions of section 55 of the Constitution Parliament shall, unless sooner dissolved, stand dissolved on 6th June 1979 (that is to say, five years from the first sitting of the House after the last dissolution of Parliament under the former Constitution)

(8) For the purpose of section 58(2) of the Constitution, a report of the Constituency Boundaries Commission shall be deemed to have been submitted on 19th November 1973 (that is to say, the date of the submission of the last report of the Standing Committee of the House under section 49 of the former Constitution).

4.- Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries

(1) The person who, immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, holds the office of Premier under the former Constitution- shall as from the commencement of the Constitution ,hold office as prime Minster as if the had been appointed thereto under section 60 of the Constitution.

(2) The person who, immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, hold office as Minister (other than the Premier) or as parliamentary Secretaries under the former Constitution shall, as from the commencement of the Constitution hold the like offices as if they had been appointed thereto under section 60 or 68 of the Constitution.

(3) Any person holding the office of Prime Minister or other Minister by virtue of the provisions of sub-paragraphs (1) and (2) of this paragraph who, immediately before the commencement of the Constitution, was charged under the former Constitution with responsibility for any matter or any department of government, shall, as from the commencement of the Constitution, be deemed to have been assigned responsibility for that matter or department under section 62 of the Constitution.

5.- Office of Attorney-General

Until Parliament or, subject to the provisions of any law enacted by Parliament, the Governor-General, acting in accordance with he advice of the Prime Minister, otherwise decides, the office of Attorney-General shall be a public office.

6.- Existing public officers

Subject to the provisions of the Constitution, every person who immediately before the commencement of the Constitution holds or is acting in a public office under the former Constitution shall, as from the commencement of the constitution, continue to hood or act in that office or the corresponding office established by the Constitution as if he had been appointed thereto in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution:

Provided that any person who under the former Constitution to any other law in force immediately before immediately before such commencement would have been required to vacate his office at the expiration of any period shall vacate his office at the expiration of that period.

7.- Oaths

Until such time as the oath of allegiance, the oath of secrecy or, in relation to any office, the oath of office is prescribed by law, that oath may be taken in the form prescribed immediately before the commencement of the Constitution.

8.- Supreme Court Order

The West Indies Associated States Supreme Court Order 1967(a), in so far as it has effect as a law, may be cited as the Supreme Court Order and for the purposes of the Order or any other law-

a) the Supreme Court established by that Order shall, unless parliament otherwise provides, be styled the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court; and

b) references in that Order to the Premier of Saint Lucia or to the Premier of any other independent state shall be construed as references tot e Prime Minister of Saint Lucia or, as the case may be, to the Prime Minister of that other state.

9.- Appeals Order

The West Indies Association States (Appeals to Privy Council) Order 1967(b) may, in its application to Saint Lucia, be cited as the Saint Lucia Appeals to Privy Council Order and shall, to the extent that it has effect as a law, have effect as if the expression "Court Order" included any law altering the Supreme Court Order and as if section 3 were revoked.

10.- Protection from inhuman treatment

Nothing contained in or done under the authority of any law shall be held to be inconsistent with or in contravention of section 5 of the Constitution to the extent that the law in question authorizes the infliction of any description of punishment that was lawful in Saint Lucia immediately before 1 March 1967 (being the date on which Saint Lucia became an associated state).

11.- Commonwealth citizen

Until such time as Parliament otherwise prescribes, the expression "Commonwealth citizen" shall have the meaning assigned to it by the British Nationality Act 1948 or any Act of the parliament of the United Kingdom altering that Act.

12.- Interpretation

(1) In this Schedule-

"the Constitution" means the Constitution set out in Schedule 1 of this Order;

"the former Constitution" means the Constitution in force immediately before the commencement of this Order.

(2) The provisions of section 124 of the Constitution shall apply for the purposes of interpreting this Schedule and otherwise in relation thereto as they apply for the purposes of interpreting and in relation to the Constitution.

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