BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FORMER Government insider and notable critic of Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, Dwyer Astaphan had endorsed Jonel Powell of Team Unity as the best candidate to represent Central Basseterre (Constituency Two) in the Parliament of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The endorsement was made last evening (Jan. 25) at a Team Unity’s meeting in New Road, which had seen a large turnout of electorates.
Astaphan, who is the former Parliamentary Representative of Constituency Two, urged the audience to vote for Powell and not the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party’s incumbent, the Hon. Marcella Liburd, whom he claimed has no ideas and is lazy.
“When I was the Representative, I had a lot of ideas and I had a lot of passion but I had no support from Douglas. Marcella is the Representative now; she has no ideas and no vision. She is lazy for the Constituency and greedy for herself. She got all the supports she needs and more and still can’t get nothing done.”
Astaphan likened Powell unto himself, stating that the Attorney-at-Law is “full of passion, full of vision, full of ideas, young, willing to work and he got a leader who is going to support him and a team who is going to support him”.
Clinging tenaciously to his derogatory views of Minister Liburd, Astaphan continued criticising her and he also targeted Dr. Douglas and the Labour Party.
“Many of you have admitted to me that Marcella is a waste of time. And you all need not to tell me that because I knew that already. But some of you who tell me that she is a waste of time, say, ‘Well, I am a Labour and I still have to vote for Labour.’ Let me tell you something, the Labour Party died long ago; this is not a Labour Party! This is Douglas puppy that he does whip as he likes and pull as he likes.
“This ain’t no Labour Party, so Marcella is not running for no Labour Party. So if you vote for Jonel you are not voting against Labour because Douggie done kill that already.”
Following his retirement as a Minister in the Douglas-led Administration, Astaphan has been engaged in the field of insurance but was still a supporter of the Labour Party and a critic of the People’s Action Movement, the party from which Powell emerged that is part of the tri-party coalition Team Unity.
He had also endorsed and canvassed for her as his successor in Central Basseterre during the Labour Party’s campaign leading up to the January 25, 2010 General Elections.
However, since the firing of the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris as a Minister of Government and the Hon. Sam Condor’s resignation from the Cabinet, as well as for personal reasons, Astaphan had been and continues to be one of the most vocal critic of Dr. Douglas.
