BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DESPITE criticism about his character, Lindsay Grant, leader of opposition party the People’s Action Movement (PAM), indicated that he has no plans to resign from his position.
“I am the leader of the People’s Action Movement. I have the full support of the party executive and its rank-and-file,” Grant told SKNVibes exclusively.
“There is a process we go through for the selection of the leader. There has been no challenge to my leadership from anyone. It is not an issue within the party.”
PAM failed to capture the majority of seats in the January 25 General Elections, losing to the incumbent St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party six-two. Grant was not among his party’s victors, as Labour newcomer Glenn Phillip won Constituency Four by a 29-vote margin.
In an April interview with this media house, social commentator Washington ‘Washie’ Archibald withdrew his support for Grant and called for his resignation after viewing a video of Grant allegedly negotiating with a foreign investor.
Archibald’s snub was echoed by an editorial published in the latest edition of weekly newspaper The Labour Spokesman, which called the PAM leader a “laughingstock” and accused him of showing “political immaturity”.
Grant insisted he would not be daunted by the chatter and deemed it an obvious attempt to divert attention away from critical issues, such as crime and the introduction of a Value-Added Tax (VAT).
“In Dominica, they have had six murders and they called in the Regional Security Service. The Cayman Islands have had four and they’ve brought in Scotland Yard. But, in St. Kitts-Nevis, we have had 14 homicides and all the government has done is hold a press conference,” he slammed.
“Persons should be focusing on these issues, not on whether or not I am still the leader of PAM. We need to be careful with the developing trend of our crime, because if there is a spill over into our tourism sector we will be doomed economically.”
Grant said the time has come for persons to become more politically mature in their thinking, so that they could determine fact from fiction and deal with issues in an objective, non-partisan manner.
He revealed that his party would soon disseminate its own perspective on VAT through a series of public lectures.
“We need to discuss VAT because of the tremendous impact it will have on every citizen. The party executive is discussing the initiative and it should be rolled out very shortly.”
