Harris pressured to accept poll watchers

EMBATTLED ST KITTS AND NEVIS PRIME MINISTER Dr Timothy Harris has finally buckled under months of growing regional and international pressure and will allow observers to scrutinise Friday’s national elections.

Harris, according to opposition sources, wanted a repeat of his 2020 shenanigans when he first invited the Organisation of American States (OAS) to send an observer mission, and days later, inexplicably withdrew the courtesy, using as a cover, COVID-19 quarantine protocols.

OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, told former Prime Minister, Dr Denzil Douglas then, that the hemispheric body “…regrets that a practical solution was not put in place like was the case in Suriname to allow our observers to deploy but is respectful of the sovereign decision.”

There was mounting local and regional pressure from several Heads of State in the Caribbean and international groupings for Harris to permit scrutiny of the August 5^th polls, but remained ox-like that he will not concede to external pressure.

But pressure snowballed and Harris yielded.

An OAS team is already in the twin-island Leeward state ahead of Friday’s polls.

Addressing a massive rally Sunday night, prime ministerial candidate Dr Terrance Drew told supporters that the tricks and shenanigans that Harris and his team used the last elections cycle “2020 will not work again”.

Dr Drew had warned the main opposition St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) “will not go to the polls without regional and international observers.”

Drew and the SKNLP and their supporters, while a respectful and peaceful party, are “prepared to fight at all cost for democracy”.

Dr. Drew is expected to meet with the OAS team some time tomorrow.

Health and housing, reducing spiraling cost of living, beating the pinch of poverty and lowering the cost of fuel are part of the development package the SKNLP will pursue during its stewardship in office, Drew told his listeners.

He continued, “We must not allow our children to suffer without getting the necessary health care that they need. I keep speaking about health care because of what we have here presently under the Dr. Harris government.

“I will also make sure that the waiting time at the Emergency Room at the hospital is cut significantly. The very long wait at the emergency is certainly not the fault of the nurses because I can tell you that the vast majority of nurses is doing their best but it is the system that they have to work with and that system must change.”

“We are going to train a number of triage nurses so when you get to the A&E you would not take long to see a nurse or somebody to see you to determine the kind of care you should have. So, we will work on that,” Dr Drew added.