PAM supporters encouraged to vote for Condor and Harris
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LEADER of the People’s Action Movement Hon. Shawn Richards has rubbished asseverations made by Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas and Members of his Cabinet that the Hons. Sam Condor and Dr. Timothy Harris are not members of his political party.
Speaking on WINN FM’s Voices programme yesterday (Apr. 23), Richards, with vehement enthusiasm, stated that members of the St. Kitts Labour Party have been pedalling almost 100 percent propaganda on the platform of their recently held ‘Full Confidence’ public meetings.
“In terms of what I’ve been hearing coming from the Labour platform within the recent weeks, I have been hearing almost 100 percent propaganda. Mr. Condor and Dr. Harris are not members of the People’s Action Movement. They will not be contesting the elections as candidates of the People’s Action Movement, but rather as full independent candidates.
“I do believe that those gentlemen have made it abundantly clear, in that the current Labour Party isn’t the Labour Party that they grew up in and, as a result of that, they are going to run as independent candidates.”
He also made public the names of his party’s candidates for the impending General Elections, with the exception of one.
“We have in East Basseterre Ian ‘Patches’ Liburd; we have in Central Basseterre Jonel Powell; we have in Constituency Number Four Lindsay Grant; we have in Constituency Number Five myself, Shawn Richards; we have in Constituency Number Eight the Hon. Eugene Hamilton; and at the right point in time we will indicate to the public our candidate for Constituency Number Six.”
Addressing the moderator, Richards added, “I think you would note that I did not make any mention of Constituencies Three and Seven, because it is not our intention to run any candidate in those two Constituencies.”
The political party’s Leader was asked if he would be encouraging his supporters to cast their ballots for Condor and Harris, who under the Labour Party’s banner have championed Constituencies Three and Seven for the past 20 and 17 years respectively.
“Yes, that is our intention!” was his response, adding, “As a matter of fact, we have already been meeting with our supporters in those Constituencies so to sensitise them as to what is happening and to ask them to give their support to those gentlemen.
“As I said, we are working towards a government of national unity and one has to be careful in terms of strategy and to ensure that we have the right strategy going forward. It makes no sense in splitting the support in those Constituencies and then at the end of the day we end up with a couple of areas with the Labour Party in government.”
He is of the view that the Prime Minister is the major cause of difficulties in St. Kitts and Nevis, noting that “Denzil Douglas is at the center of all the problems that we are facing here in this Federation”.
The two Members of Parliament are no longer Government Ministers but they are still on the Executive of the ruling Labour Party; Condor is the Deputy Leader and Dr. Harris is the Chairman. However, according to the Deputy Chairman, Senator Nigel Carty, both men’s positions would be reviewed at the party’s Annual Conference sometime in May.
Former Senior Minister Dr. Harris was fired from the ruling Labour Party Administration by Dr. Douglas on Friday, January 25, 2013.
And according to Dr. Douglas, it was evident that Dr. Harris “does not regard himself as being bound by the collective responsibility of the Cabinet and this could become disruptive to the smooth flow of government business”.
Dr. Harris, he said, had refused to support the government-sponsored Senators (Increasing of Number) Bill, 2012 and the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank (Vesting of Certain Lands) Bill 2012 and had indicated that he would not have supported the 2013 Budget when tabled in Parliament.
Additionally, the PM explained that Dr. Harris did not indicate whether or not he would vote against the Opposition’s Motion of No Confidence against the government in which he served.
Approximately five days after, the then Deputy Prime Minister Sam Condor resigned from the Federal Cabinet.
“The recent developments pertaining to issues of good governance and Constitutional Integrity have brought me to the point where I feel constrained to tender my resignation as a Member of Cabinet, with immediate effect,” he had stated in a press release.
He however declared that he would remain committed to serve and to do the best that he could for the people of his Constituency and of the nation in general, “by the grace of God and by the will of the people”.
Since then, both Condor and Harris have been publicly speaking out against Dr. Douglas and Members of his Cabinet.
They had joined with the elected members of the Opposition in writing a letter to the Governor General that they are not in support of Dr. Douglas and would vote in favour of the No Confidence Motion.
They also publicly stated that they remain committed to the doctrines of the Labour Party but would run as independent candidates in the next general Elections and are in favour of a Unity Government arrangement.
