BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AS promised, Roy Fleming of the National Integrity Party (NIP) has released information to support his claim that his former party, the People’s Action Movement (PAM), had attempted to transfer leadership of the party to a non-member.
Earlier today (Aug. 27), the NIP’s Deputy Leader spoke exclusively with SKNVibes, outlining a plan which he said he was made aware of shortly before the 2004 General Elections was held.
He explained that for the plan to be executed, three of the then PAM candidates were to have conceded their seats to allow persons outside of that party to contest in those areas.
“The present arrangement as it now stands in relation to PAM’s facilitation and acceptance of two former Labour Party candidates, though hypocritical and deceitful, is not surprising to me at all. In fact, PAM has been colluding with former Labour Party candidates since before the General Elections of 2004 unknown to its followers and supporters.
“Two days after Nomination Day in 2004, and after attending church service in Cayon on that Sunday, Party Leader Lindsay Grant instructed us candidates to proceed to the Factory Social Centre. On arrival there, those of us who were no in the know were shocked to see former Labour candidate Dr. Henry ‘Stugumber’ Browne and other members of the UNEP Party waiting for us.”
Fleming said he was unaware of what the meeting was about but he was subsequently informed of “the plan”.
“We had no clue or inclination as to what this meeting was about and what to expect. We subsequently found out that Lindsay Grant had made an arrangement with Dr. Browne to surrender the seats in Constituencies One, Two and Three. I was asked to step down as the Central Basseterre candidate and allow Dr. Browne to replace me. Likewise, Glenroy Blanchette was also asked to step down and allow Dr. Thelma Phillip Browne to contest the seat in Constituency One. Both Blanchette and I and other candidates totally rejected this hypocritical move, as we were fully aware that the vast majority of the PAM supporters in their constituencies would not favour such an arrangement.
“We later understood that this sell-out arrangement would have seen Dr. Browne as the new Prime Minister. As it stands now, this is the second time that Grant and PAM have surrendered the Prime Ministership to Labour; Dr. Browne in 2004 and the Hon. Timothy Harris in 2013.”
According to the trend – Fleming explained – it is obvious that PAM continues to make mistakes to the detriment of its chances of gaining political office.
“All PAM supporters therefore have to now do some serious introspection and make their own deliberate judgment on whether the party which they support is really serious about getting into government. When the former leader of PAM went to the Marriott in 2010, he knew that his actions would cause his party to lose the elections and remain in opposition; so said, so done.
“The present leader has once again made an error in judgment by asking the PAM supporters in Constituencies One, Three and Seven to give those seats to individuals who have consistently said that they are still with Labour and have served in the Denzil Douglas-led Labour Government for the past 18 years as Permanent Secretary and Ministers of Government, knowing fully well that should they win their seats with the help of the PAM vote they would migrate back to the Labour Party and be part of the next Labour Government, resulting in PAM once again remaining in opposition.
“How PAM continues to make these mistakes over and over again is puzzling to many supporters and followers…”
The aspiring Minister of Government declared that the nation is in dire need of “decent, honest and principled individuals to serve in government; individuals who stand up against corruption, individuals who would not sell out for personal gain”.
Such individuals, he stressed, are in the NIP.
