Published 30 November 2022
Basseterre
Buckie Got It St. Kitts and Nevis News Source
NEVESIANS ARE FEARFUL that the December 12 polls will be tainted and Dr Janice Daniel Hodge, leader of the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP), mirrored that dread in a recent exclusive with www.sknnewssource.com.
In it, Hodge recalled Nevis Premier Mark Brantley, who is also leader of the Concerned Citizen Movement (CCM) serially ignoring elections promises made to the populace and whitewashed his failures by blaming former Prime Minister, Dr Timothy Harris, for his failures.
The CCM, the People’s Action Movement (PAM) and Harris’ Peoples Labour Party (PLP) comprised the three-party coalition ‘Team Unity’ government which ruled St Kitts and Nevis from 2015 to August 5th this year.
Brantley’s CCM became disgruntled with Harris when he wanted more than two terms as PM, contrary to covenant they brokered when the party was formed, and complaints that Nevis was routinely shortchanged financially by the national government.
Harris government collapsed when CCM walked away from the coalition arrangement. Harris fired those who left the coalition, including Brantley, thus forcing the need for fresh polls.
The then opposition, St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) under Dr Terrance Drew triumphed.
With Basseterre being a Federation, Nevis holds separate polls to elect its leaders, and Hodge’s who has been the leader for two years of the NRP is seeking to remove the experienced Brantley from office via the ballot.
“For a long time, the people of Nevis have not placed significant emphases on the federal elections. But we are expecting a much larger turn out for the local elections, People just decided that the local election is the more important one,” Hodge explained.
Hodge is of the firm belief that Brantley’s “many lies” he told to secure the Nevis votes at the federal election will be repeated in the Nevis polls, hence of fears that it will be rigged in his favour. She insisted that the recent outcome of the federal elections isn’t a true reflection of the will of Nevisians
This time, electors will vote him out, she said confidently. Throughout the interview, Hodge referred to Brantley as the “outgoing Premier”.
She felt that Brantley was lucky that the August 5th polls came three years ahead of the constitutionally due date and voters were suffering from ‘elections fatigue’ and were in no mood for another round of casting ballots.
Hodge argued that the wily Premier Brantley, recognising the mood of Nevisians “played on their emotions with the ‘fair share talk’”.
“Of course, we were not preparing for the Federal elections as no one was expecting one and so the Premier used the fair share – as that is what he ran on – I think it played on the emotions of the people.”
“We recognised it was a political gimmick. I don’t think that he will play that again and if he does the people have realised that since the Federal elections, he has not mentioned anything about ‘fair share’ again, and so we are expecting a much better outcome in the local elections,” a confident Daniel Hodge said.
“Be alert and cognisant of the lies, deceptions, promises and political antics of Premier Mark Brantley,” was Hodge’s massage to Nevisians.
