PM Douglas labels Brantley’s statement as ‘deliberate and malicious’; says Labour Party not involved in Nevis’ local politics

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, MAY 31ST 2011 (CUOPM) – A recent remark by Federal Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Mark Brantley that the Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas was in Nevis last Thursday 27th May, for a secret meeting, has been labeled as “a deliberate, malicious statement to undermine the (electoral) system.”

Mr. Brantley, who is also Deputy Political Leader of the opposition Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) and a member of the Nevis Island Assembly made the statement at a rally in Charlestown Thursday night, after a public march organised by the CCM) to protest alleged flaws in the voter registration process.

Prime Minister Douglas had travelled to Boston, Massachusetts on Wednesday 26th May to attend his son’s graduation ceremony at Harvard University.

“It’s a deliberate, malicious attempt to put me in a bad light to involve me into matters of the Nevis Island local elections and I find it very, very disturbing that the Leader of the Opposition in the Federal Government could make such a malicious public statement which he knows is a lie and is trying to put me in a bad light simply because it would appear he is under extreme pressure from the electorate in Nevis,” said Prime Minister in response to a telephone caller from Nevis.

Dr. Douglas reiterated: “I am not engaged in any way with the electoral exercises in Nevis. I carry out my specific functions as the Prime Minister under whose portfolio the electoral system to some extent falls. I do not show any partisan involvement. I have to work with both parties in Nevis. I have to work with the CCM. I worked with the CCM Government of the past and I now work with the current NRP Government that is currently in power. I do not get involved in the partisan politics of the people of Nevis. I am here in every way to ensure that we have a fair and determined effort to elect for the people of Nevis their own Government.”

Leader of the Opposition Hon. Mark Brantley

Prime Minister Douglas said: “I take a very dim view of persons who deliberately attempt to drag me into the local electoral politics of Nevis when they know that I am not involved.

“I express my disappointment, my very profound disappointment in the behavior and conduct of the Hon. Mark Brantley. I hope that his behavior and conduct is distinctly differently from the rest of the party that he represents in the CCM.” said Dr. Douglas.

With election campaigning already in full swing for local elections due in Nevis in a few months, Prime Minister Douglas stated that as the Political Leader of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party that the Labour Party “is not involved in any way in the electoral politics of Nevis.”

“As leader of the party, I have not given any sanction, I have not encouraged any element within the Labour Party that I have the opportunity to lead at this time, to become involved in the politics of Nevis,” said Prime Minister Douglas, who again “expressed my disappointment in the Hon. Mark Brantley for what he is trying to do in terms of sullying my name and dragging me into the local politics in Nevis.”