BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - IN a recent interview with Deputy Political Leader and Constituency Two hopeful of the People’s Action Movement (PAM), Jonel Powell said that neither he nor his party is against the Citizenship by Investment Programme.
Powell and his law firm partner, former Leader of the PAM Lindsay Grant, were criticised several weeks ago in an article written by the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary, Erasmus Williams, for abandoning a PAM-organised protest to journey to Dubai for the Global Residence and Citizenship Conference.
Powell said that the issue was really a smoke screen.
“I look at it this way. We are not the Labour Party and Denzil Douglas who thinks that he is 10 man in one and nothing can happen unless he is there. Our party is made up of a number of capable and powerful people and the march was successful despite the absence of Mr. Grant and I,” he said.
He said they are licenced service providers for the Citizenship by Investment Programme and he and his partner did attend the conference.
“In addition to that, we do business with persons from around the world, some of whom are actually based in Dubai, apart from the Citizenship Programme with other forms of corporate law. So it was a good opportunity for us to go and meet with some of the clients face to face, which was paid for out of our pockets and arranged long in advance before the march which came up much later,” Powell explained.
He continued: “The other thing that they tried to spin is that we are against the Citizenship by Investment Programme. That is completely not true! From reading the release from Mr. Williams, he tried to suggest the party and myself have been against the Citizenship Programme. We have never come out and call down the Programme. We have criticised the management of the SIDF and questioned the funds that are held by the SIDF. I think that they should be held in a government consolidated fund, but we don’t have a problem with the Citizenship Investment Programme. It was started under a PAM Government and I challenge anybody to come up with anything that says otherwise.”
Powell is yet to be selected as the representative for Constituency Two, but he has however already started making house calls within that Constituency.
“I’m not waiting for them to make a decision, because there is lots of work to be done. So I have begun to do the work. I can’t officially say I am the candidate. I am putting myself as the perspective candidate and passing the message on, on behalf of the party. It’s really an exercise of making myself acquainted with the constituents and the constituency in general…walking through, meeting people, letting them see my face and I’ve gotten from the most part positive feedback,” he said.
The young Attorney-at-Law said that since throwing his hat in the political ring he had garnered positive feedback and was even surprised when he was contacted by the government-owned ZIZ for a news feature after launching his Facebook Fan Page.
“The opposition has had issues trying to get on ZIZ, so I was surprised when I was asked to do a news feature on ZIZ. And it was mainly to do with the launching of my Facebook page and, generally, my interest in being a candidate for Constituency Two.”
Powell said that his party had held two very successful marches on the land issue and, in preparation of them, they also had a number of successful public meetings, whistle stops, town hall meetings and they have recently resumed public meetings.
“In addition to public meetings, we have stepped up group constituency meetings, we have been doing work for a long time, even in the areas where we don’t have candidates. But we have stepped up the work in trying to mobilise, because, in our opinion, we are preparing for an early election,” he said.
Powell extended his gratitude to those in Central Basseterre who have accepted him and is hoping to reach every household in the near future.
