Agriculture Minister claims Hamilton’s allegation “a lie”
…says Laptop to facilitate non-picture ID confirming voters
By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com
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| Minister of Agriculture and Labour Party’s Representative for Constituency Eight, Hon. Cedric Liburd |
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MINISTER of Agriculture the Hon. Cedric Liburd said the allegation made by Eugene Hamilton, the Deputy Leader of the People’s Action Movement [PAM], about a Laptop and printer within an office in Cayon’s Community Centre with a visible wire connected to the area where electoral officials were confirming voters is a lie.
“Mr. Eugene Hamilton has made an accusation that the labour Party had a computer and a printer in a back room where we were connected to the Electoral Confirmation Process.
I want to deny that that never took place. It’s a lie and what has happened is that at the front area of the Community Centre there is a small office where we set up a Laptop and a printer in order to facilitate and assist all persons who come to be registered and are only in possession of their birth certificates and not an official ID, such as a passport, Social Security ID or a driver’s license.
“I, as their Parliamentary Representative, provided a service for all of those persons because a birth certificate is not an official ID, for it does not carry a picture of that person.
Therefore, one has to write an affidavit or a letter in order to assist that person to go and have their name confirmed. So, instead of persons coming only with their birth certificates and have to turn back, Cedric Liburd provided that service for them, whether they are Labour or PAM,” the Minister said.
Minister Liburd said that the computer and printer were for no other reason and the system was never connected to the database of
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| Laptop and printer in office at Cayon Community Centre. [Photo provided by Eugene Hamilton] |
the Electoral system.
“What has happened,” he added, “is that the Electoral people wanted a cord moved from where they are to be connected to a telephone line. That’s all I have seen…there is nothing else in that room. What happened is that it is in the same office where that cord is connected.
“Mr. Eugene Hamilton should have been speaking about whether or not we had done the same thing at St. Peters, because it is the same computer that was set up there and also at the Pavilion down at St. Mary’s Park.
He had no comment to make about those but because he was so frustrated in the Upper Cayon area, where he was at the Community Centre most times, he really didn’t have any work to do in terms of assisting people; and I believe that he just wanted to use something to get to the Process, that’s all,” Liburd said.
The Minister also highlighted an incident to strengthen his motive, noting there was a lady who was born in 1926, does not work, had no form of picture identification and was only in possession of her birth certificate.
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| The Office to which the cord is connected. [Photo provided by Eugene Hamilton] |
“I had to go and provide an affidavit because I am her Parliamentary Representative. I knew the lady because she has been living in the Constituency and I have known her over a period of years and the name that she carries is the same name that is on the Confirmation List.”
Asked if the PAM could have also provided a system similar to his, Minister Liburd answered in the affirmative and noted when the Mobile Unit was at the Pavilion at St. Mary’s Park, “a lady entered and I knew she was not a supporter but she wanted some help and I gave her a letter using the same Laptop and printer.
It is very frustrating for someone to reach there knowing that they had decided to be confirmed and is not in possession of a picture ID and only their birth certificate.”
The Agriculture Minister pointed out that Hamilton’s pager called the lady, “because they knew of her political affiliation” and asked her to see the letter and she was thereafter confirmed.
“It is really ridiculous for Mr. Hamilton to be making a statement like that, because it is not true. I want to say what Mr. Hamilton has demonstrated is really the philosophy of PAM, based on lies since in 1965 and they still continue with the same old policy of telling lies to get a gloss to the public for a short while and after that it is nothing,” he said. ~~Adz:Right~~
Minister Liburd stressed that the office in which he had established the computer and printer is the first office anyone would see on a visit to the Community Centre and “not in a back room of the building as claimed by Mr. Hamilton. That office is used by anyone who visits the Community Centre on business or otherwise and it is the very first office they would encounter on entering the building”.
In response to a letter sent by Pastor Leroy Benjamin, the Supervisor of Elections, to Eugene Hamilton, the PAM’s Candidate for Constituency Eight, dated May 27, 2008, Hamilton said, “There is an office in the Center, commandeered by the Labour Party in which there is a laptop and printer outfitted in that office for the use of the Labour Party, where there is connectivity of the computers that are online to the database of the Electoral Office”.
The Deputy Political Leader said it was a direct interference with the data that is being collated each day of the Confirmation Process and “if the Labour Party can be in that area eavesdropping or online to the database of the Electoral Office, I have every right to photograph or observe their conduct”.
Hamilton also accused Benjamin of failing in his duty to ensure information that was collected by persons under his direction was confidentially kept.
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