BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE rumoured suggestion of appointing former member of the Nevis Island Administration Hensley Daniel to the position of Special Advisor to the Premier has met with strong opposition.
Last Monday (Aug. 27), the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) – in agreeing with the decision of the lower court – nullified Daniel’s election in the St. John’s Constituency.
Although the court – in effect – cancelled Daniel’s election thereby removing him from office, he felt it necessary to tender his resignation from the post of Deputy Premier just hours after the judgment was read.
Since then, rumours have circulated concerning Daniel’s appointment to an advisory position. As the Deputy Leader of the Concerned Citizens Movement – Mark Brantley – explained, making such an appointment would be the equivalent of rubbing salt in a gaping wound.
“I have also been advised of the appointment or the suggested appointment of Hensley Daniel as a special advisor to the Premier. I think that is merely rubbing salt into the wound…the open wound of the people of Nevis, because a court has just found him guilty of misfeasance, guilty of abusing the electoral system to gain office. And for such an individual to be hoisted on us through the back door, I think, is rubbing salt in the wound.”
Brantley suggested that the Nevis Reformation Party’s intention of appointing Daniel as a special advisor “is another indication that the NRP is bent on a path of heightened tensions”.
Sensing that the situation could escalate to an undesired end, Brantley appealed for an atmosphere of calm and for sensibility to prevail.
“We are calling for calm, we are calling for people to be sensible but, at the same time, we are saying that our cause for calm and our cause for reconciliation and people to be sensible ought not to be mistaken for cowardice or lack of resolve on the part of the Concerned Citizens Movement.”
