Published 20 June 2017
Buckie Got It, St. Kitts and Nevis News.
PM Harris skips CPA meeting in St. Kitts, fifth for 2017
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, June 19th 2017 – Absent again. The Federation’s Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris was notably absent from another important regional meeting, the fifth in the past six months.
St. Kitts and Nevis is hosting the 42nd Regional Conference of the Caribbean, the Americas and the Atlantic Region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) with nearly 100 delegates and observers from Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the United Kingdom and Canada.
But Prime Minister Harris was absent from this meeting and his remarks were presented instead by Acting Prime Minster, the Hon. Shawn K. Richards.
No reason was given for the absence of Dr. Harris at the CPA conference, the first to be held here since 2000.
Prime Minister Harris, the current chair of the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), was also absent from the PANNCAP Regional Parliamentarians Forum in Kingston, Jamaica on May 30th.
Dr. Harris was absent from Antigua and Barbuda’s 2nd Annual Citizenship by Investment Conference at which he was scheduled to speak.
Prime Minister Harris was also absent from the 47th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in the Turks and Caicos Islands on May 24th and 25th. Dr. Harris is Governor for St. Kitts and Nevis on the CDB Board of Governors.
Dr. Harris was also absent from the 28th Inter-Sessional of Caribbean Heads of Government in Georgetown, Guyana in February this year.
His absence from the last five regional meetings in succession has prompted speculation the Prime Minister is avoiding Caribbean leaders and the media on several issues.
