Campaign launched last Saturday
CHARLESTOWN, Nevis - THE Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) is the latest political party to join the campaign trail for the impending General Elections, as it launched its slate of candidates to compete for the three Federal Seats on Nevis.
Premier and Leader of the CCM Mark Brantley, Alexis Jeffers and Eric Evelyn - all incumbents - are running again to defend the three seats they won in 2020 to form the Team Unity Government that collapsed two years later.
In his speech on Saturday (20) evening, Brantley urged party supporters to return the CCM to office with the three seats, as they are working with the People’s Action Movement (PAM) to usher in the new paradigm of unity.
In 2020, the CCM joined with the PAM, which brought four seats to the then coalition, and the People’s Labour Party (PLP) that brought two. But a problem festered between PAM-CCM and the Dr. Timothy Harris-led PLP, which caused a souring of the relationship that resulted in the termination of six Cabinet members and subsequently the dissolving of the Parliament.
PAM’s Leader Shawn Richards confirmed that his party would be heading to the elections in partnership with the CCM. And the two organisations are seeking to oust Dr. Harris, who has become the central focus of all the opposition parties campaign.
Brantley told the gathering that the concept of unity was not about a specific leader, such as himself, Richards or Dr. Harris, instead it was a concept “about you the people of the country. And nobody can hijack unity”.
In his address, Deputy Premier Alexis Jeffers highlighted that his party stood up for what is right, as the people on Nevis were not getting their share and that he was willing to stand up for them in Basseterre.
He conceded that they could have stayed and enjoyed as well as accept what was going on, but it was a decision to stand up for the people on the island that made them take the decision to speak out and leave the Government.
“So, here we are tonight after all the challenges that we have gone through. We tried, all the six of us who they claimed that ‘the mandate was taken away from us’. Not a sole fired me! Not a sole fired me! The mandate was taken away from Mark, Eric and myself,” he noted.
Brantley is confident that his party could return the three seats to form the government once its ally could hold its side of the bargain and bring at least three.
The three candidates will come up against those from the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP), which is yet to announce its candidates for the Federal Elections.
The party is said to be facing a conundrum, according to sources, as a policy in place since 2020 states that no person who was part of the Local Government Election can compete Federally.
It means no one from its current slate of Local Government candidates can move up, forcing them to look for new personnel.
