By: Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 1st July 2021) — The government side of Parliament on Monday 28th June 2021 saw the ‘ayes’ having it for a six-month extension of the State of Emergency (SOE), but this came after a lengthy debate in which the Opposition side rejected comments by the mover of the resolution, Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris, as a political attack on the SKNLP amid the COVID-19 pandemic management.
Opposition Leader Dr. Denzil Douglas, a medical physician, called it “a vicious attack.” “It is very unfortunate that this is how we are starting this debate. With the Prime Minister making a presentation attacking the Labour Party. So it’s the Labour Party that is responsible for all that has gone wrong here in the management of this pandemic? He said we have politicised the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are not managing the pandemic — he is responsible for the management of the pandemic here in St. Kitts and Nevis. We here in this parliament can lend our support; we are not leading it, and he has failed in the leadership of this pandemic here in our country going on for almost 18 months,” Dr. Douglas said.
PM Harris had claimed the SKNLP “saw a game to be played for political advantage” regarding the pandemic, and claimed that 98% of doctors in the country are vaccinated “except for those who sit in the SKNLP.” Dr. Douglas responded: “The St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party has been out there from the very beginning. They politicised the management, only selecting those whom they want to select. Others have come forward saying we want to be helpful as stakeholders and the government responding ‘No we don’t need you!’ — and now he’s saying we are politicising the management of the pandemic, which is crazy and ridiculous. The time for the game of blaming is over. People are dying, and all he could do is blame someone else for the three deaths that we’ve had here in this country over this.”
The three Opposition members — Dr. Douglas, Dr. Geoffrey Hanley (Constituency One) and Senator Dr. Joyelle Clarke — walked out during the vote for the passing of the resolution. A media statement from the Opposition indicated: “In the end members on the opposition benches felt that they could not support a State of Emergency that was too little too late and for such a long period of time, which could mean lockdowns and restrictions and further human suffering until year end.” The SOE extension takes effect from Wednesday 7th July 2021 and will expire on Friday 31st December 2021, under section 19 subsection 3 of the St. Christopher and Nevis Constitution Order.