Montserrat Budget Passes Without Opposition Contribution

Montserrat’s 2026 Appropriation Bill was passed in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday without any contribution from the Opposition after Opposition members boycotted the sitting, after their request for additional time to review the Budget was not granted.

The Budget debate proceeded in the absence of the Opposition, with the Government side completing the second reading, committee stage and third reading of the bill without amendment.

Before the bill was put to a vote, Premier and Minister of Finance Reuben T. Meade addressed the issue in the House, rejecting suggestions that the Opposition had been denied an opportunity to participate.

“In the absence of the opposition, I wish to bring this Budget presentation to a close,” Meade said, adding that the Government was “not seeking to do anything to stop the opposition from being able to participate.”

The Premier said the Opposition had been given a week to review the Estimates and argued that parliamentary debate requires elected representatives to be prepared to respond once the presentation is made.

“The budget is about the estimates. The estimates. That is the appropriation bill, which is being presented here this week. It is not about the speeches,” he said.

Meade also said the acting Leader of the Opposition [Nyota Mulcare] could have remained in the chamber and would have heard that the sitting was to be adjusted until 9 a.m. the following day.

“Had the acting leader of the opposition waited, she may have recognized that we were going to have an adjustment until tomorrow at 09:00,” he said.

Drawing on his own experience as a former opposition member, Meade told the House that immediate response to a budget presentation is part of parliamentary practice.

“When people elect their representatives, they expect them to have the intellectual fortitude to make notes and be in a position to debate immediately after,” he said.

Following his remarks, the Premier commended the Appropriation Bill for its second reading. The House then moved through the committee stage, where the development fund votes, supply votes and the full schedule were all approved by members present.

The bill then passed its third reading after Standing Order 53 was suspended to allow the measure to proceed.

The final approved total for the 2026 Appropriation Bill is EC$345,946,400, including EC$162,622,500 in development fund votes and EC$183,323,900 in supply votes.

After passage of the budget measure, the Assembly moved on to the second reading of the Payment Systems and Services Bill 2026.