VOTE ‘HARMFUL HARRIS’ OUT

PRIME MINISTER DR TIMOTHY HARRIS “IS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY” in the tiny island of St Kitts and Nevis, warns opposition parliamentarian, Dr Denzil Douglas.

Speaking Tuesday to www.aroundtheregions.com in a telephone interview, Dr Douglas, who led the twin island CARICOM state from 1995 – 2015, said a pall of gloom hangs over his country set to go to the polls this Friday.

Douglas said PM Harris is creating lots of instability and uncertainty by instigating a number of fraudulent activities during the run-up to this week’s national elections.

The former PM backed up his assertions pointing to a passports scam unearthed by vigilant St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) officials.

Douglas said Harris has masterminded distribution of passports and identification (ID) cards to non-nationals in a bid to bloat the voters list in his favour.

Harris, Douglas told www.aroundtheregionss.com, is also systematically “raping the country and emptying the treasury” in a bid to retain power.

Douglas is appalled at Harris’ desecration of the country’s constitution to fulfil his selfish ambitions.

“This was not so in 1995,” said Douglas, when his SKNLP ousted Prime Minister Dr Kennedy Simmons’ who was in power for more than a decade.

Simmons led the newly-independent Caribbean Island when it became independent from Great Britain in 1983 until his ouster in 1995 by Douglas’ SKNLP when he lost the elections and his constituency.

Dr Simmons stayed longer in power because in the 1993 polls no political party gained a parliamentary majority.

This caused civil unrest against the unpopular minority Simmonds’ Government and the country headed back to the polls on July 3, 1995.

According to the results, the People’s Action Movement (PAM) secured 1 seat; SKNLP, 7 seats; in Nevis: Concerned Citizen’s Movement (CCM) lapped up 2 of the three available parliamentary seats, and the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) the other.

On 4 July, Mr. Douglas was sworn in as Prime Minister the next day, while his Cabinet took office two days later.

In this elections cycle, Douglas and many prominent citizens are worried about the chaos deliberately sponsored by PM Harris and his band.

Uncharacteristically, former PM Dr Simmonds added his voice to the ongoing socio-economic and socio-political slide taking place in his country.

“For the benefit of future generations, this present danger to our democracy, Timothy Harris must be removed with the greatest urgency. All hands must be on board, we have a nation to save,” Dr Simmonds warned in an address to Kittitians and Nevisians.

Simmonds, a national Hero in his country, warned that Harris must not be re-elected because “he has proven that he cannot be trusted”.

Furthermore, Harris’ rule of putrefaction has caused the twin-island Federation to be “sinking into a crisis of morality in the midst of a rampant and self-seeking dictatorship (amidst) a political nightmare of nepotism and greed” Dr Simmonds said bluntly.

Six of Harris’ Cabinet Ministers withdrew from the coalition precipitating the collapse of his seven-year rule and forcing the reluctant PM to call early election, originally scheduled for 2025.

“Harris recognises that he will not be on the podium (following the announcement of the results), and he is resorting to desperate and fraudulent measures,” Douglas said in Tuesday’s interview, observing that fairness must characterise Friday’s elections.

Harris’ Team Unity government – a coalition of three political parties – has “failed us, and it’s for time social and economic development to return to the country,” Dr Douglas emphasised.