Grant invites PM Douglas to have him charged for electoral laws breach
…says Dr. Douglas’ accusation is baseless

By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com

Lindsay Grant - Political Leader of the People’s Action Movement

Grant made this pronouncement yesterday during the PAM’s monthly press conference held at the Bird Rock Beach Hotel.

“Insofar as his baseless accusation against me is concerned, I invite the Prime Minister to invoke the electoral laws and have me charged with the election offence of which he accuses me. Indeed, I challenge the Prime Minister to instruct that I should be charged with the offence he has imputed to me in Parliament and through the government’s information machinery.”

He was at the time responding to a statement Dr. Douglas made in the National Assembly on Thursday, June 12, which linked him to a breach of the electoral laws.

Dr. Douglas told the Parliamentarians that the ongoing registration and confirmation procedures had passed the test and the computerised voter registration management system had detected an attempt by a woman to register for a second time.

“Such was the most recent case when a lady from Half Way Tree, who had confirmed her own registration in Basseterre early in the process, turned up in Half Way Tree in the company of Mr. Lindsay Grant, the Leader of the People’s Action Movement, to confirm her registration for a second time in her own daughter’s name, who is abroad. These examples evidence the capability of the system that my government has implemented and of which my government is justly proud,” Dr. Douglas said. ~~Adz:Right~~

In his explanation of the incident, Grant said an elderly woman had flagged him down while he was driving in Godwin Ghaut.

“I stopped immediately and readily agreed to drive her to the registration centre at Half Way Tree. That dear old lady is Ms. Sarah Mardenborough, who, as far as I am aware, has already celebrated her 85th birthday.

“Naturally, I undertook to assist the 85-year-old voter through the process at the Half Way Tree registration centre. It turned out that she had already reconfirmed and had no need to repeat the exercise,” Grant said.

Grant further explained that when he took Mardenborough to the registration centre her name was not among those on the new listing, and the officials asked her if she was in possession of any form of identification.

“It was when she went into her bag that I saw what appeared to be the new reconfirmation sheet and I asked her to let me see the document,” he said.

The Political Leader added that on examination of the document he recognised that the octogenarian had already been reconfirmed. “And I said to Ms. Cecilia Phipps, an employee of the government who was present, it appears that Ms. Mardenborough has reconfirmed already and I don’t think she needs to go any further.”

Grant is of the view that at Mardenborough’s age, error is understandable and forgivable but “in typical fashion, Dr. Douglas attempted to jump in for the kill”.

He also expressed shock that while Mardenborough’s name could not have been found on the register at Half Way Tree, “her daughter’s name appears two times”. This glaring error, he pointed out, raises serious questions about the integrity of the reconfirmation process.

“In a move that could only have been the result of growing desperation and in demonstration of his well-known disposition to wickedness, the Prime Minister went to Parliament with the bogus proposition that I was linked to multiple registration”, Gran said.

Grant said Dr. Douglas wanted to portray him in a bad light as the Leader of the PAM and that the PM could have conferred with Phipps, who was in charge of the operation on the day in question.

He stressed that the PM owes the nation an apology for misleading Parliament and “he should hang his head in shame at his abuse of a 90-year-old citizen in his desperate obsession with scoring political points against his opponents”.

Grant also stated that for good and necessary measure, PM Douglas must give the country confidence in the electoral system by inviting overseas election observers to monitor the remaining phases of the registration process.