SVG opposition urges
electorate to vote gov’t out
CHA-CHING!
A section of audience at the town hall meeting held at the
Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center.
Photo by Nelson A. King
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By Nelson A. King
Stating that they are fed up
with what they characterized
as gross mismanagement of the
Vincentian economy and rampant
corruption by the incumbent
Unity Labor Party (ULP)
administration of Prime Minister,
Dr. Ralph E. Gonsalves,
three members of parliament
and a former government minister
of the main opposition
New Democratic Party (NDP) in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Saturday night urged the electorate
to vote the government
out of office when the next general
elections are called.
Using what became their
mantra at a three-hour-pluslong
town hall meeting, at the
Friends of Crown Heights Educational
Center in Brooklyn,
the opposition figures – Members
of Parliament for West
Kingstown, South Leeward and
North Leeward, Daniel Cummings,
Nigel “Nature” Stephenson
and Roland “Patel” Matthews,
respectively, and former
Grenadines representative Glenford
Stewart, told the audience:
“Don’t get vex (angry), vote.
“Go out and vote, and get
them out of office,” said former
Communications and Works
Minister Stewart, a civil engineer
by profession, in leading
the charge. “We couldn’t find
an unbiased judge to hear our
petitions. You vex, tell your relatives
to vote.
“You happy that the Argyle
International Airport is opened,
and you still vex,” he added at
the town hall meeting, hosted
by the St. Vincent and the
Grenadines Progressive Organization
of New York (SPOONY),
the New York arm of the NDP,
which was streamed live on the
Internet and broadcast live on
local radio.
“You have to be vexed,
because they (the government)
can’t give you an account (of
the airport’s finances,” Stewart
continued.
He accused the Gonsalves’s
government of “draining” the
accounts of the former National
Commercial Bank and is “waiting
for NIS (National Insurance
Services) to bust.”
He said that the Vincentian
government should not be
engaged in the construction of
hotels in the country, stating
that the private sector is doing
so in other Caribbean islands.
In addition, Stewart said
the government has failed to
deliver on its election promise,
18 years ago, for construction
of a cross country road and a
national stadium on mainland
St. Vincent, and is now contemplating
building a tunnel
from Arnos Vale to Cane Garden
to ease congestion to capital
Kingstown.
“Those engineers coming
from Canada already consulting
me,” he disclosed. “It’s a
nonsense venture. They can’t
event fix pot holes, and you say
you’re going to build tunnel.”
Stewart said the administration
has also failed to deliver
on construction of a jetty in
the southern Grenadine island
of Canouan and is yet to repair
damage done by a rain storm 5
½ years ago to the jetty at the
port in Chateaubelair, a town
on the north western shore of
the mainland.
Former SVG Communication
and Works Minister, Glenford
Stewart addresses town hall
meeting at Friends of Crown
Heights Educational Center.
Photo by Nelson A. King
/www.ridgewoodbank.com
/www.ridgewoodbank.com