BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Prime Minister Terrance Drew says he has invited his predecessor, Dr. Timothy Harris, to unveil his new Cabinet on Saturday during a public ceremony at the Warner Park Cricket Stadium.
Drew led the main opposition St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) to victory in last Friday’s general election, winning six of the 11 seats in the 15-member Parliament. The other four seats are to be named by the Governor General.
Harris had been forced to call the snap election three years before the constitutional deadline after his coalition Team Unity government collapsed in June.
“As I have said, I have nothing personal against him [Harris]. Everything I said was fair and factual in the [election] campaign,” said Dr. Drew, adding, “I was asked about his security and his vehicle. I have said to the Commissioner of Police [Hilrey Brandy] that he should be left with a vehicle and should be given security”.
The prime minister said that he was not interested in the actions taken against former prime minister Dr. Densil L Douglas by Dr. Harris when he assumed the position of Prime Minister in 2015, when Douglas, who was among the victorious SKNLP candidates in last week’s polls, lost the general election then.
“I criticized what he [Dr. Harris] did [to Dr. Douglas]. I said it was wrong, and now that I am in the position, I have the opportunity to set a new paradigm, and that I have done. I have extended that courtesy to him and also invited him to my new Cabinet’s inauguration. He is a former head of government, and I think he deserves to be invited as well,” said Dr. Drew.
“We are inviting the whole country to come out and see that inauguration when ministries and portfolios will be assigned to the new cabinet of Ministers,” said Dr. Drew, who dismissed false information about ministries and portfolios already assigned to successful SKNLP candidates.
Prime Minister Drew, sworn in last Saturday as the twin-island Federation’s fourth prime minister, said the event would begin at 4.00 pm (local time).
Drew said he had also held talks with the political leaders of the ruling Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) and the opposition Nevis Reformation Party (NRP).
“I have communicated with the Premier of Nevis (Mark Brantley) and the Leader of the NRP (Dr. Janice Daniel-Hodge). I have told the Premier that the issues with Nevis must be resolved, and I am taking that very seriously.
“I will sit with the Premier of Nevis, and we have to find a way to hammer out the tough issues of CBI revenue, aspects of the Constitution that need to be dealt with so we can have a better relationship so that these matters don’t raise their head again.”
The Charlestown Accord signed in 2014 between Harris’s People’s Labour Party (PLP), the People’s Action Movement (PAM), and the CSM that resulted in the Team Unity Government was discussed.
“I know they had the Charlestown Accord, but we see people weren’t respecting it, saying it is not worth anything, so anything we do has to be done in a legislative framework that will have the strength to survive, and that is how I think we have to move, but I am committed to resolving these issues and where there are inequities or sense of mistreatment or not be given a fair share, we have to deal with those issues so that St. Kitts feels satisfied and Nevis feels satisfied,” said Prime Minister Drew.
One of the issues that led to the collapse of the coalition was the distribution of funds under the Citizenship by Investment Program (CBI), through which foreign investors are granted citizenship of the island in return for marking a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of the Federation.
The CCM had called on the Harris government to provide a more significant percentage of the revenue to Nevis from the CBI.
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