Takes pledge of proper conduct during political campaign
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ALL candidates of the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) have promised that they would deviate from the culture of mudslinging, which seems to characterise political campaigns in St. Kitts-Nevis, and conduct themselves properly during the ongoing election campaign.
The pledge was taken late last week during the launch of the CCM’s election campaign and the launch of its cadre of candidates listed to contest the January 22, 2013 local elections in Nevis.
Deputy Political Leader of the CCM, Mark Brantley, in speaking about the pledge, described it as historic.
“One of the interesting and novel things about that launch is that all of the candidates and the Party Leader took a pledge, a formal solemn pledge in front of those gathered, that we would conduct ourselves properly and appropriately during this campaign, that we would conduct ourselves with full respect of the views of others and for the people of Nevis as we seek to serve them.
“It is the first time that any political party has so publicly pledged to ensure that we conduct ourselves appropriately during the campaign and on the platform.”
In the Parish of St. George (Nevis Three), former Premier and Political Leader of the CCM Vance Amory would be seeking election, with his Deputy Mark Brantley contesting – yet again – the St. John’s (Nevis Two) seat.
Alexis Jeffers would be seeking to retain his standing as Parliamentary Representative of the St. James (Nevis Four) constituency and Keith Scarborough would be seeking to become the Parliamentary Representative of the people of St. Thomas (Nevis Five).
The CCM has introduced its pair of fresh legs to the political arena in the person of Spencer Brand.
According to a CCM press release, he is a religious and community activist who would be contesting the St. Paul’s (Nevis One) seat.
Concerning its level of readiness to contest the local elections, Brantley informed that the party has been in a state of preparedness for some time.
“Our position has been that the people clearly voted for a change of government in 2011. Were it not for the illegalities and irregularities and outright fraud engaged in by the NRP, then we would have had a new government in Nevis now for over a year. And so we have stayed in a state of readiness, we have done things by the book and in accordance with law.
“We took the matter to the court and won every single point in court. We have been awarded our costs and we now intend to move forward, constantly reminding the people of Nevis that the reason we are going back to the polls is that the NRP were found to have cheated and we therefore cannot trust them to conduct the affairs of this island.
“These are people who the court has – in a historical judgment – castigated as being guilty of misconduct and bad faith. I do not see how anybody in good conscience could elect these scoundrels to office.”
Come next week Monday (Jan. 14), both the incumbent Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) and the CCM would be nominating their candidates for each constituency and would face off in a battle of the ballots on January 22.
