Political leaders in last minute dash for votes

BASSETERRE (CMC):

Less than 48 hours before an estimated 40,000 people go to the polls to elect a new government, both Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris and Denzil Douglas, the leader of the main opposition St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) have been making last minute appeals to the electorate.

Harris, who is leading his Team Unity – a coalition of three political parties – into the June 5 general election, told supporters “this election you face a clear choice.

“You can risk the progress we have made by moving back to the past with unsafe streets and high IMF (International Monetary Fund) debt from the same old Douglas Labour Party, or we can move forward with Team Unity to a stronger and safer future,” he added.

“I encourage you on Friday, the fifth June to put your ‘X’ next to the saw and tell your family and friends to do the same,” said Harris, who in 2015 led Team Unity to a 7-4 victory at the polls.

He said it was with “humility ... that I ask for your support to help us continue the work we started just five short years ago. Together we have achieved much for the Federation on a whole, but there is more work to be done” Harris said.

But Douglas, who is seeking to regain power after his defeat in the last general election, told SKNLP supporters that the ruling coalition had become “desperate in the final hours of this campaign” and were going to constituencies “where they are losing and offering people EC$25,000 in unsolicited loans.

He said the funds were being made available by the island’s development bank, which is headed by a relative of the prime minister.

“They are dishing out loans to people who are not even employed, who do not have to show any collateral,” Douglas said.

But he told supporters that the stimulus package outlined by the SKNLP, which ‘would become policy when we get back into office” would differ from that of the present administration which is dependent on funds from the Social Security.