BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IT is safe to say that knowledge of the date of the next General Elections in St. Kitts and Nevis rests in the heart and mind of one man, the Prime Minister, as he is the one who sets the date.
But, since mid-2014, several dates have been floating around as many were suggesting dates that were either rumoured or which they felt to be appropriate and or workable for the calling of the imminent General Elections.
Only last evening (Jan. 15) on Team Unity’s platform, the Hon. Sam T. Condor, Unity’s Constituency Number Three candidate, suggested that General Elections would be held on February 26, 2015. And whether that would be the case is left to be seen.
However, in an interview with SKNVibes, Unity Leader the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris, while not giving a specific date, declared that he expects the Elections to be called within a matter of weeks.
“We are expecting the Elections to be held very, very soon. Elections are imminent and we are expecting an election to be called within a few weeks…Elections are constitutionally due anytime within the five-year cycle. The five-year cycle ends within a matter of a week or two, because the last Elections were called on January 25. We basically have cleared that window and for us, for all practical purposes, the life of the Government has ended…
“For us, we are looking at the 25th as the final day for the Government and we are hoping that by that time the Government would have dissolved the Parliament and give the people a chance to elect a new government, bring a new dispensation of democracy to St. Kitts and Nevis.”
Dr. Harris explained that during Team Unity’s preparations for the Elections, it has focused more on the delivery of its message to the masses.
“Our part remains focused on the messaging. We are not getting caught up in big billboards and that kind of obscene expenditure that we see those who have been the parasites of the people have engaged in.
“Our view at this time with the high level of poverty, a poverty rate of 33 percent, is rather than engage in these massive and obscene billboards, we would rather put that money in a fund to help poor people out of poverty, to bring an end to the pit latrines which the outgoing leaders time and time again spoke about and yet there has been no remedial action. So we want to focus on a message of the promise of a fair deal for the people of St. Kitts and Nevis; a fair sharing of the prosperity we would bring to the country for all the people of St. Kitts and Nevis.”
The Team Unity Leader opined that the incumbent is making an attempt to purchase votes by issuing vouchers and making offers to individuals. He described this as an act of desperation.
“We believe, as was the case in Nevis, so in the Federation at this time, the people of the country want change and no amount of giving out of vouchers now, no amount of offers… no amount of rentals that are being made available to the young people. None of these things are going to succeed because people see them for what they are; a vain act by a desperate administration who has long lost the support of the people and just coming in the last shower of rain trying to fool people with squander mania, which at the end of the day the people will have to pay doubly for by way of taxation and unemployment.”
Team Unity has boasted on countless occasions of its heightened level of preparedness for the upcoming General Elections. But it has been criticised in some quarters for having not yet disclosed the candidate who would contend against Prime Minister and Parliamentary Representative for Constituency Number, the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas.
