Former prime minister Dr. Denzil Douglas on Wednesday night offered his St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party to the people of the twin-island federation as a legitimate, competent and compassionate government following the announcement earlier by Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris that the National Assembly had been dissolved on Tuesday.
“I find it absolutely disgraceful, despicable and downright disrespectful that Dr Harris would make his broadcast at 7 p.m. on Wednesday evening, more than 24 hours after he claimed that the dissolution became effective. This kind of sneaky and reckless behavior raises the question in the psyche of the nation, what else is Harris hiding?” said Douglas in an address to the nation.
He said the announcement has been long overdue as the five-year deadline since the last general elections has passed since February 15, 2020.
“Despite the many attempts by this regime to find loopholes to go around the Constitution, the loops cannot and will not hold. Today, the Constitution of St. Christopher and Nevis has spoken loudly, with authority and with finality. The Constitution will speak again by August 11, 2020 when the final curtain comes down on this deceptive and miscreant regime,” Douglas said.
He continued: “I am very thankful that the Constitution is the Supreme Authority of our land and provides the necessary checks and balances that have frustrated Dr Harris from further abuse of the National Assembly and perpetuate their time in office under the guise of the COVID-19 pandemic. For a government that has spoken so boastfully about its prospects for winning, the fact that it has allowed itself to lose the element of surprise and to let the clock run out on its term in office, speaks volumes. The writing is on the wall, and Harris and his government are mortally afraid of going back to the people because they know, just like how we know that they will lose.”
“Today, the Constitution has spoken! The rule of law has prevailed here in St. Kitts and Nevis. Come that bright Election Day morning the will of the people shall prevail in this our blessed land,” said the former prime minister.
Douglas, who will lead the NextGen SKN Team in the polls, said that the last five years have not been easy for the people.
“Rampant corruption, nepotism and victimization have left many languishing on the margins of the national prosperity agenda. The Timothy Harris-led administration has had one focus and one focus only, which is to abuse the power afforded to them by the state to enrich themselves and their families; strip away at our systems of transparency and accountability and to secure for themselves an unfair political advantage by suppressing opposition voices. Scandal after international scandal has diminished the esteemed Office of the Prime Minister and tainted the image of our country regionally and internationally,” said Douglas.
He also said that the Harris administration has had all the time in the world and all money that was needed to implement progressive policies and projects that would stimulate growth in the St Kitts and Nevis economy, enhance the wellbeing of the people and improve the quality of life of every man, woman and child.
“Instead, they have squandered all opportunities at every turn. All across our Federation, there is a palpable sense that we are a nation in decline and we are moving in the wrong direction. Now, when our nation is facing one of the worst public health crises the world has seen in over a century, this neglectful, this incompetent and this uncaring government continues to fail our people. The public health response has been erratic and haphazard with no commitment to mass testing that would effectively contain the spread of COVID-19,” he said.
He stated that the pandemic has been used as a cover to justify what is really the political decision to impose a six-month State-of-Emergency in order to limit the freedom of movement of the people and grant the security forces broad powers of discretion and arrest far beyond what is necessary to successfully cope with its public health impacts.
“To restrict those freedoms at the most important time for such in a democracy is a despotic act. Yes, by passing that resolution, Harris, just like despots in other parts of the world, has decided that we will have an election during a State of Emergency.”
The mismanagement of the public health crisis, he said has been compounded by the government’s failure to implement a comprehensive and holistic plan to deal with the economic fallout of the crisis and the forecast for Caribbean economies is bleak.
“The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has predicted that the effects of COVID-19 will cause the biggest recession that the region has suffered since 1914 and 1930. Specifically, the International Monetary Fund has projected that the ripple effects of the Global Health Crisis will cause GDP growth in St. Kitts and Nevis to contract by 8.1%,” Douglas said.
Douglas expressed the view that Decision 2020 represents one of the most important decisions on leadership that the nation has ever faced since 1993.
COVID-19 he said is imperative as it brings into serious perspective the vital need for a date for the election to be announced as soon as possible following the dissolution of Parliament.
“Setting a date for the election as early as possible is absolutely vital in order for the relevant authorities to effectively plan for an election day scenario that makes it possible for all registered citizens to exercise their franchise and for the voting process to be conducted in keeping with the social distancing and sanitization protocols required by this crisis. Best practices around the world testify that that in order to ensure that elections are conducted in a manner that is free, fair and inclusive of all voters – whether they are quarantined or not; whether they are sick or not – a national Plan of Action must be put in place as far as possible in advance. To delay the setting of a date for the election is to put lives at risk and to erect barriers to the exercise of the democratic rights of the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis,” said Douglas.
He said the pathway to eradicating the COVID-19 and reducing and mitigating the negative fallout of its economic impacts will be very, very challenging and it therefore mandatory that the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 be managed by a Government that has full powers in order to execute a long-term strategy for economic recovery.
