By Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 1st June 2023)- “Sooner rather than later. It’s difficult to put a timeframe on it but we not waiting on no last minute to bring out no candidates.” This was the response by the opposition People’s Action Movement (PAM) Chairman and candidate for Constituency One (Central Basseterre) Jonel Powell when quizzed about timeline for revealing PAM candidates, while being interviewed by Maurice ‘EK’ Flanders on Freedom FM’s weekly ‘Issues’ programme aired live Wednesday 31st May 2023.
The interview was conducted ahead of the party’s convention 57 slated for Sunday 4th June 2023 at PAM Headquarters in Basseterre under the theme ‘Reelect, Re-engage, Revitalize’. Powell continued: “We want people to start doing the work now….we want people to start being profiled in the various constituencies now in terms of those candidates and we are changing and it is something that we want to do in the short term because we want those candidates to be able to help carve the vision going forward.
We want there to be a much broader, a much wider draw on resources and knowledge and
ideas so not just that we present the best team or we thinking we presenting the best ideas but we in ourselves as candidates must buy in and believe in what we’re saying or representing to the people and not just repeating something somebody else write on a piece of paper.” According to him: “We like everybody has had issues of candidates in the past; some stay [and] some go but that’s life but PAM is serious about this country…affairs of the country are run seriously. It’s about getting back into government to continue a lot of work that could have and should have been done under [Team] Unity and to build on what is happening now.” Powell spoke about PAM being opened to new faces being added to the new executive body.
“We’re not against persons who have traditionally not been on the executive …we are very much opened to more than the traditional faces that might have been around the executive [over] the last few years. We are open to new members coming in…it’s about revitalizing and bringing in fresh blood, bringing fresh faces, broadening our reach and we’re open to that.
“Some persons we know tried something different – POLITICS – 15 last time in terms of a different party and it don’t look like that working out for them right now and so we’re happy to have them come back into the fold and rejoin the fight to make St. Kitts and Nevis better,” he added.
Commenting on the energy of the party overall leading up to its convention, Powell had this to say: “I think it’s very positive. We see as almost like a new chapter. I can’t predict the outcome of tomorrow’s [executive committee] election but I think we’ll have some changes, and it’s an opportunity to start anew to some extent; new mandates [and] get that fresh blood, and thinking in there and combine that with the experience of other persons who’ve been there for a bit, and move forward.
We are very excited to get the new executive in place; get it working so we start doing things like working on candidates so we can tighten proposed legislations we want to put forward…working on policies …getting ready for the next general election.” Front Banner Image: Screen shot image shows People’sAction Movement (PAM) Chairman and candidate for Constituency One (Central Basseterre) Jonel Powell during a social media promotion of PAM Convention 57. (credit: Facebook/PAM-The People’s Action Movement)
