BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE ‘Wind of Change’ that has been blowing across the Caribbean bypassed St. Kitts and Nevis, as it recently did in neighbouring Dominica, and left in its wake a victorious Dr. Denzil L. Douglas-led Labour Party.
Winning six of the 11 Federal Seats (eight on St. Kitts and three on Nevis), the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party has its name indelibly written in the history books of the twin-island Federation by being the first political party to win four successive elections, more so, under the leadership of the same person who started it.
In downtown Basseterre, the celebrations started shortly after 4:00 a.m. today (Jan. 26) when first-timer and lone female on the Labour Party’s team, Marcella Liburd, defeated Roy Fleming of the People’s Action Movement by 272 votes to take the Seat in Constituency Number Two. She tallied 1 907 votes, sent Fleming ‘flying’ with 1 635 and left Independent Candidate Elsroy Dorset to look over dual citizenship in the rear with 10.
Another first-timer, Glen ‘Ghost’ Philip, slam dunked the leader of the PAM, Lindsay F. Grant, to be the Parliamentary Representative of Constituency Number Four by 29 votes. Philip tallied 1 185 and Grant took 1 156 to PAM’s Secretariat.
Leader of the Labour Party and returning Prime Minister Dr. Douglas, who has been victorious since the 1989 General Elections, sent some vicious uppercuts, combination punches and right-crosses to the body of PAM’s Junie Hodge and left him to ‘scrape’ only 179 votes against his 1 905.
Sam T. Condor, who also has been a Parliamentary Representative since 1989, tried to follow in his leader’s footsteps, but was not close enough to his margin of victory because he fell ‘short’. He however engineered his supporters in Constituency Number Three to send PAM’s Bernie ‘Local Obama’ Welsh crashing to a 1 306-535 defeat among his engines.
It was Harris again in Constituency Number Seven. The four-time champion crossed the finish line in a Usain Bolt’s fashion to leave PAM’s Ronald ‘Louie’ Williams at the chalkboard and Independent Candidate Reginald C.H. Thomas singing Who’s the Daddy and driving around the island. Harris gained 1 635 votes, Williams 570 and Thomas 10.
The Labour Party’s sixth victory came from a doctor, who, like Harris, has been in Parliament since 1993. He is Dr. Earl Asim Martin, who has injected PAM’s Glenroy Blanchette for the second consecutive time in his ‘Fresh Face’. The surgical operation was held in Constituency Number One and, from the time they entered the theatre Blanchette refused the anesthetic but Dr. Martin increased the dosage to 1 777 milligrams and the patient succumbed by 241 injections. But the race was not yet over for the remaining Seats, as the Tuesday-morning sun sent it rays down on St. Kitts.
For the second consecutive time, Shawn K. Richards has shown Labour candidates contesting in Constituency Five that not only is he a Master of Financial Information Systems, but that he can also count very well. He contested against Norgen Wilson and made the doctor count all the patients he had at the Pogson Medical Centre in Sandy Point, where he received his medication – 1 128 votes to 985.
An insurance expert in the form of Eugene Hamilton gave PAM its second Seat. The battle between Hamilton and Labour’s Cedric Liburd was a long, hard-fought one. It see-sawed until almost mid-morning when Hamilton decided to make him sign a life insurance policy in the Agriculture and Fisheries Sector, and forced the former Minister to acknowledge that the accusations he expressed on the collapse of the British American Insurance Company Limited did not affect his choice as Parliamentary Representative for Constituency Number Eight. Hamilton insured 2 017 constituents and Liburd settled for 1 986 agriculturists and fishermen.
Over on sister isle Nevis, leader of the Concerned Citizen’s Movement (CCM) Vance Amory decided that even though female Members of Parliament in the region and representatives of Caribbean Institute of Women in Leadership were in favour of a Patricia Hanley’s victory, she was no match for a former premier.
Hanley, representing the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP), was whipped into subjection as Amory taught her the rudiments of election campaigning and sent her back to think about nursing and leave him as the more suitable candidate to represent Constituency Number 10 in the Federal House of Assembly. He walked away with 665 votes to her 225.
And his colleague Mark Brantley, once again, had to do battle with Deputy Premier Hensley Daniel. The lawyer walked into the legal chambers of Constituency Nine, argued his case and told the linguist that the spirit of the late Malcolm Guishard was still present as in the outcome of the By-Election when he won by 30 votes. The jury brought in Daniel guilty 1 601 to 1749.
However, NRP bounced back with Patrice Nisbett retaining his Seat. Nisbett threw his wig into the ring and challenged CCM’s newcomer Alexis Jeffers to try it on for size. Not knowing that the dimunitive Legal Advisor to the Nevis Island Administration packed a heavyweight’s punch, Jeffers picked it up and was knocked cold, as Nisbett stated that he was not ready to give up his Seat and the appointment of Deputy Speaker in the Federal House of Assembly. The businessman is currently licking his wounds.
