NGOs asked to urgethem to resign from Parliament
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NOT only has Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas suggested that Hons. Timothy Harris and Sam Condor should vacate their Parliamentary offices, but he has also issued a call to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to urge them to tender their resignation.
Dr. Douglas, while speaking on his radio programme ‘Ask the PM’ yesterday (June 19), explained that in 2010 the voting populace, being cognisant that it could elect a government of its choice, gave a mandate to the St. Kitts Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) to handle its affairs.
The Prime Minister noted among those elected of that party were Condor and Harris and he equated their recent actions as constituting “theft and betrayal…hypocrisy and ungratefulness” of and in their respective constituencies.
“Voters in these two constituencies turned out in full force in the 2010 elections after having weighed the past, present and future prospects of both Labour and PAM. And these voters asked, via their ballot box, that the St. Kitts Nevis Labour Party represent their interest in Parliament…”
The country’s political leader expressed his view that since both Harris and Condor were elected to office via a SKNLP ticket and seeing that they are now working with the People’s Action Movement (PAM), they should tender their resignation from Parliamentary office.
“Despite this, the persons who were elected in constituencies three and seven as a result of Labour’s hard work and campaigning and funding have for several months now been working with PAM, the party that the voters rejected, in order to defeat Labour, the party the voters chose. This, I emphasise, is a betrayal. It is a betrayal of the people in constituencies three and seven and it would only be fair and decent for Harris and Condor to resign from the seats that they won as St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party candidates, since they are now attempting to bring down the St. Kits-Nevis Labour Party government and present themselves anew to the voters in a bi-election as members of whatever party they have now joined.
“…My point is that it is not right for Condor and Harris to continue holding on to the seats won as SKNLP candidates in three and seven. They should run as members of whatever party they now embrace and they should let the voters decide exactly which party will represent them in government.”
Prime Minister Douglas, who also serves as Leader of the SKNLP, has implored the NGOs to join him in urging his former Cabinet colleagues to demit their Parliamentary offices.
“So I urge the Christian Council, the Bar Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the Hotel and Tourism Association to urge Messrs. Condor and Harris to resign in order to allow the people of constituencies Number Three and Number Seven to exercise their democratic right to choose exactly who will represent them.”
