‘People chose Governments,’ says Marcella Liburd, dismisses that ongoing projects are tied to elections

Minister of Health, Social Services, Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, the Hon. Marcella Liburd. (Photo by Erasmus Williams)

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, MARCH 25TH 2013 (CUOPM) – “Elected officials do not choose a Government… People chose Governments.”

“It is through the choosing of elected officials that the people determine who they want their government to be. We had an election in 2010 and the people chose,” said Minister of Health, Social Services, Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs, the Hon. Marcella Liburd.

“What has happened since, as you know is history, but in 2010 the people chose who they wanted their government to be,” said Ms. Liburd, a lawyer by profession in response to a question posed during last week’s Ministerial Press Conference.

She reminded reporters and the twin-island federation that people choose governments and also it is from the people of whom a mandate comes from.

“A mandate does not come from elected officials because it is the people who give the elected officials their mandate and it is the people who can take it back. So everything is based on the people and the last time we went to the People which was in 2010, we had an overwhelming mandate and the Labour Government got an overwhelming mandate to serve the people of this country; and as far as I am concerned as the Honourable Richard Skerritt said, we are doing it in a constitutional way,” said Minister Liburd.

She dismissed any notion that the official opening of the New Horizon Rehabiliation Centre, the new Old Road Health Centre, the paving of roads and construction of hotels and resorts, have to do with general elections constitutionally due in 2015.

“A lot of the things that I mentioned, they could not have started in the last three to five months and a lot of them would have had to start for quite some time now in order for them to come to fruition. These things are not just happening now, they had to have been started before so that the services could be open to the public now,” said Minister Liburd.

Referring to the civil registry, she pointed out that that has been in effect for quite some time now.

“So all of these things that are happening now, it is because of the planning that we’ve had so that they come into fruition now and I also want to make the point when people say ‘oh well they only doing these things because an election is coming or whatever else they say which you might be implying’ Who is expecting an election in 2013? Maybe you all know a lot of things that we don’t know but as far as we are concerned, elections are due in 2015 and so we had all of plans in 2013 already planned and in place. So it is not a question of why all these things are happening now, trying to give the impression that these are things that are just coming up now,” said Minister Liburd, a former Speaker of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly and a former senator in the lawmaking body.

“Look at the projects that are going on, they could not have been something that could have been done in the last 3-4 months…..so we decided let’s do this. How would you get a New Horizons rehabilitation Centre? How would you get a New Old Road Health Centre? How would you get a Civil Registry?” she asked.