By: Spokesman Newsroom

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Monday 19th May 2025)-Conference Guest speaker Hon. Alva Baptiste has warned supporters of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) against what he termed as “political poisoning” in the lead up to the next general election. 

Addressing supporters during the 93rd Annual National Conference held at the SKNLP Headquarters in Lime Kiln Commercial Development on Sunday 18th May 2025 held under the theme ‘Powering Progress, Championing Workers’, Baptiste, a regional ally from the St.Lucia Labour Party  (SLP) and government minister, encouraged supporters to remain vigilant.

“You must not enter the election period with a compromised political immune system,” Baptiste commented while focusing on the concept of “political poisoning”.

“When you have a weakened political immune system, you become vulnerable to the unrealistic promises of those who want to bluff their way to the levers of power, whose values are the direct opposite to yours.”

He explained that symptoms of political poisoning include doubting party leadership, back-talking ministers and MPs, and questioning whether to vote at all.

“If you are exposed to political poisoning, please go to the doctors in the leadership of your party,” he advised.

Baptiste also criticized what he called “misinformation barons” and “prisoners of the wellsprings of public opinion,” who use propaganda to distort progress and manipulate public perception.

“You must watch what you consume during the election period. The first order of business of those who want to reverse the progressive policies of this administration is to employ deception and corrupt assassination against your leaders. That’s the first order of business. And they have another group, the misinformation barons, and the prisoners of the wellsprings of public opinion. To prevent the progressive policies from reaching maturity and giving birth to maximum potential results will employ propaganda with maximum intensity and they poison your political system.”

“Flirting with what is in opposition to powering progress and championing workers… you become attracted to persons who prefer simplistic responses to the complex challenges of our time,” he added.

Using a Creole proverb to reinforce his point, Baptiste said: “The person who asks you to buy the horse that is pregnant will not help you feed the young,” meaning those who mislead you before elections won’t be around to help you endure the consequences after.

He credited Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew and his team for steering the country forward in less than three years, stating that they are “taking you to the Palace of Development.”

“Comrades, very soon you’ll be entering a season when this twin-island nation will reverberate with the charge and counter charge of a general election,” he said, pointing to upcoming elections in St. St.Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, and St. Kitts-Nevis.

“Brother Ralph [Gonsalves] is going in this year, 2025. And we are the saints. St. Lucia will be next year and then in 2027, will be St. Kitts-Nevis. And we are hoping that in 2027, we can sing like Louis Armstrong: ‘Oh, when the saints go marching in. Oh, when the saints go marching in. Oh, Lord, I want to be in that number. Oh, when the saints go marching in’.”

He cautioned against using the right to vote as a tool of retaliation or disappointment.

“In the noise of the election period, listen to the voice of reason and don’t use your political influence and vote as a weapon against your party which is powering progress and championing workers,” Baptiste urged.

“Instead, use them as tools to build defenses around your achievements and the progress you have made over the past years under the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party.”

Baptiste emphasized that withholding a vote or stepping away from the party over individual dissatisfaction could have long-term consequences.

“Sometimes we figure we withhold our vote, we’re using the vote as a weapon… because we didn’t get this or we didn’t get that… then we’re out of office. Another set of people come. The policies that are powering progress today and championing the workers disappear. And so for five years, you’re in the wilderness suffering.”