BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IN light of the potentiality of General Elections, political parties in the Federation have upped the ante in their campaigns as candidates continue to verbally assail each other and highlight their perceived incompetence in an effort to woo voters.
That was the nature of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) at its public meeting held in Newtown on Thursday evening (Jan. 22), where Dr. Norgen Wilson intimated that the incumbent Parliamentary Representative for Constituency Five, the Hon. Shawn Richards, has done nothing of significance for his constituents; while Konris Maynard made similar and damning statements about the Hon. Sam Condor as the incumbent Parliamentary Representative for Constituency Three.
Dr. Wilson insinuated to the massive crowd that the people of Constituency Five are no longer interested in supporting Richards and are ready to move forward.
“Down in Constituency Number Five, the Constituency has gone very quiet; no one is saying a thing! Persons down in Constituency Number Five, who themselves would have traditionally given support to Shawn Richards or to PAM, they have said long since before there was any realignment of boundaries that Shawn has spent 10 years in Constituency Number Five doing nothing and the people are ready to go forward. They are ready to go forward out of the nothingness from Shawn Richards.”
He claimed that Richards, for one decade, has done nothing but lime and buy beers in an effort to win votes, and that the people are calling for effective representation.
“Shawn Richards just collected more than a half million dollars over his 10 years in Parliament and has done nothing with it except lime and buy drinks. And so he believes that people would continue to follow that trend, where you could come to a man and buy a few beers or buy a Guinness and think that, well, the man must vote for you. And for the next five years he can also do nothing! You can’t resolve one problem for him. And so the people of Constituency Number Five are now ready to move beyond that and they are asking for effective representation from Dr. Norgen Wilson. And I guarantee them it is just that they will get.”
Dr. Wilson said that the SKNLP has many developmental plans for the people of that Constituency and that only hours before his arrival at the meeting he was with the Prime Minister at a groundbreaking ceremony for one of the major projects in Sandy Point as a tourist destination.
“...And so down in Sandy Point where we are going to put the first boulevard down in Cleverly Hill Strip, we have just completed a groundbreaking ceremony. And in this Cleverly Hill Strip, we are going to see 20 new shops, tourist shops, for 20 new business owners. We are not just giving house, we are not just making you get the opportunity to own land and education, we are giving people the opportunity to become business owners in this country.”
He claimed that not even a simple physical recreational activity Richards could organise for the youths of Constituency Five and accused him of lacking ideas.
“Not even a basketball competition Shawn could organise! Shawn is too lost; he doesn’t even have a good idea. Not even a good idea he can come with. And that is why we are appealing to all the people down there in Constituency Number Five to give me their support, give me their vote on Election Day, don’t just talk, I want the vote because this is our time. It is my opportunity, my good chance to get into Parliament and give effective representation for all the people down in Constituency Number Five.”
Dr. Wilson accused some supporters of the People’s Action Movement of trying to create a division among Labour supporters in that Constituency, but warned his party’s supporters to be wary of them, adding “they are trying to pull us apart and you must not fall for those tricks. You must stand firm together as Labour supporters, you must do the right thing. Don’t let them fill your head with nonsense. We are a strong people...St. Kitts and Nevis, we are one people and we are strong with Labour and we are strong with NRP...”
He said that Labour is progressive and would continue to work in the best interest of the people, and that the SKNLP “shall bring home all eight seats this time around”.
Meanwhile, Konris Maynard told the gathering that while the SKNLP is fighting for people, other are fighting for process.
“Labour has always been the party that is concerned about every man, woman and child. It’s all about the ordinary man for us. It’s all about you having an equal vote. It’s all about you having equal opportunities so that your children can become whatever they want to become in life. They can aspire to be anything they want to be, and that is what Labour represents. And because Labour has been true to that philosophy of empowerment, in this country you have a big piece of Labour...and on Election Day you must make them know that.’
He said the election is all about trust and insinuated that Condor could not be trusted.
“Comrades, we are in an election about trust and we have to ask the question: ‘Who can we trust in this election?’ In my hand here I have some affidavits between someone called here Mr. PAM Condor and Mr. Valentine Morris, because I want you to understand what I say when I say this is an election about trust.
“As you know, Mr. PAM Condor took a great stalwart to court because he was occupying a property that belongs to Captain Val Morris. And when I say this is an election about trust, my question to you is - can you trust someone who would tell the Court this, and listen, I am quoting here: ‘I am the sole proprietor of the property situate at the corner of Cayon and Millionaire Street.’ You know what that means? He is telling the Court that he owns Val Morris property. This is a sworn affidavit, public document that you can go yourself in the Court.”
Reading from the affidavit, Maynard claimed that it states: ‘I am presently occupying the property situate at the corner of Cayon Street, Basseterre, St. Kitts as a tenant at will of the respondent. I have occupied the premises for 25 years.’
In response to that Maynard asked the crowd: “Do you remember the Constituency office where it used to be on Wiggley Avenue by Hamm Shop? So how is he there for 25 years? That is what he said in a sworn affidavit to the Court. How can we trust?
“Let me go a little further, listen to this one. Now what happened is after he submitted an original affidavit to the Court at an ex parte injunction and the Court was informed this might have misleading information, he submitted a supplemental affidavit to try and correct what he was saying before.”
He further claimed that the affidavit states: “Using my own money, and without any assistance whatsoever from the respondent or anyone else, I erected the said housing structures on the premises and executed all improvements on the said land.”
Again he asked the crowd: “Could you imagine that?” and emphasised: “When people would have come forward and donated to the party and donated to him and donated to contractors to put down the structure, he had the gall to tell the Court that he alone paid for it.”
The Labour Party’s candidate for Constituency Three lamented, “This is how misleading people can get! When the situation started, the point was that he wanted Captain Morris to pay him a hundred and something thousand dollars for the property. But you cannot get an injunction in court when you are seeking damages.
“So, this is what he told the Court in order to make sure that the Court made the injunction: ‘I do not believe that damages is an adequate remedy in this case. Mr. Morris is a retiree and has been retired for more than 20 years. I do not believe he has the financial means to reimburse me the value of my equity in the property.’
Maynard claimed that after Condor had told the world that all he wanted was his money, “in order to prevent Captain Val Morris from using his own property, he said he ain’t want no money anymore, he just want the Court to injunct.”
He intoned that Condor wanted the Court to believe that he had temporarily moved to another office.
Quoting again from the affidavit, Maynard noted Condor said: “Following the purported notice from the respondent and ensuing communication, I was concerned about being displaced.”
He continued: “Since the opening of the new office on May 2, 2014, I had not seen any constituent at the office. In fact, I was prematurely ejected from my office before I was given an opportunity to inform my constituents of my relocation.”
From this premise, Maynard again asked his audience: “How can we trust?” adding that “this is after he had a big opening ceremony, invited people on Facebook, had the whole Unity Concoction on the platform and still told the Court that he didn’t tell anybody about his new office”.
Both Dr. Norgen Wilson and Konris Maynard as well as other Labour candidates spoke of Dr. Asim Martin, the incumbent Parliamentary Representative for Constituency One, in reverential tones and called on constituents in East Basseterre to give him their vote because he has been doing a wonderful job.
