Prime Minister Gaston Browne Pays tribute To Sir Gerald Watt K.C.N. K.C.

GOVERNMENT OF ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA Office of the Prime Minister

Prime Minister Gaston Browne
Pays tribute
To
Sir Gerald Watt K.C.N. K.C.

An extraordinary citizen of Antigua and Barbuda died today, and his death therefore made us a poorer people. Sir Gerald Owen Anderson Watt KCN KC, born December 19, 1938, died six days before his 87th birthday.

Sir Gerald was an independent thinker, a brave and courageous Antiguan man, a physically strong and intellectually-gifted lawyer, a great advocate for justice in the courts, and one who demonstrated his independence by placing himself in positions to deliver whatever he thought best for his country and its people.

Sir Gerald first came to the public’s attention when he was sworn-in as a very youthful attorney-at-law. When in 1971, at age 33, the second premier of Antigua and Barbuda was authorized to choose an Attorney General, Gerald Watt was appointed to that post. Because that administration lasted only five years, Gerald Watt returned to private practice after February 1976.

Sir Gerald built a reputation as a fierce litigator and an efficient lawyer. His interest in the governance of Antigua and Barbuda never diminished. When therefore the third Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda appointed him as Chairman of the Antigua and Barbuda Electoral Commission (ABEC) in 2005, he brought that same fierce independence to his job function. He faced a tribunal of three judges when an attempt was made to blame him for electoral failures in the 2009 General Elections.

Sir Gerald prevailed. He would not allow his reputation as an efficient administrator to be diminished in order to cover the unmistakable errors of judgment made by those who failed to act, following his many pleas for resources to manage the ABEC and general elections. He would subsequently be denied entry to the ABEC building by a phalanx of law enforcement officers.

When, therefore, the heritage political party was returned to office in 2014, Sir Gerald was invited to be the Speaker of the Parliament. His rulings during the multiple sittings over ten years, showed him to be compassionate, well-informed, eager to modernize the rules governing parliamentary sessions, fair and firm in his decision-making whenever he was required to rule. He was an excellent Speaker of the House of Representatives. His training as a lawyer, his argumentation skills as a litigator, his judgment as a legal practitioner, all came together to make his display of the parliamentary rules professional.

Sir Gerald Watt K.C.N., K.C. was a remarkable citizen. He will be accorded an official funeral. The people and Government thank him for his public service especially, and express condolences to his son and his other relatives, his friends and colleagues. Our country has lost a gem.

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