New political party to contest next general elections

Come next General Elections, this country may see another political party thrown into the mix.

This as an organisation, the National Liberation Movement (NLM), headed by interim leader Dr. Doris Charles, is hoping to remove the Unity Labour Party (ULP) from office.

Members of this group took to the picket line on Tuesday in an effort to shed light on and protest against the government’s decision to seek permission to appeal the vaccine mandate ruling.

This ruling saw Justice Esco Henry deciding that the government acted illegally by stating that persons effectively resigned their offices by refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Charles told SEARCHLIGHT that the NLM is a movement of concerned citizens and they are hoping to be registered as “the next political party”.

“We have thousands of persons that have expressed interest and we have been registering as well, mobilizing Vincentians.”

She described the NLM as a grass roots organisation saying that it has a number of plans which will soon be explained at a duly organised launch.

In relation to Tuesday’s protest, Dr. Charles said they are against the government’s decision to seek leave to appeal Justice Henry’s ruling.

“We are against the fact that the state has applied for a stay of execution so that teachers and nurses and policemen will be denied the opportunity that was granted to them by Esco Henry,” Dr. Charles said, while adding that the one-day protest also speaks to other social issues.

Newton George, another member of the group said the NLM speaks for the voiceless.

“…The teachers, the nurses, the civil servants and others who were literally put out of a job because of their constitutional right that they decided they not taking the COVID vaccine, their God given right.

“….Like me too, I did not take it because what I did I strengthened my immune system with natural foods and herbs, so we are here to protest today for those people who could not be here…,”George explained.

He pointed out that people lost their jobs and as a result cannot pay utility bills, and in some instances, cannot send their children to school.

“To me, if you notice my poster, it tells us what Isaiah said, that justice is eroded from the poorer class of people and that is the reason why we are here today, to make sure we get justice for our people not only for the civil servants; we are here for the farmers, even the vendors who were brutally damaged recently.

“We are here for the poor farmers who are suffering, we are also here for the consumers because we importing lots of slow poisoning processed foods while we have an agricultural based economy which we should be producing natural organic food so we can withstand the disease that caused COVID-19,” the NLM member said.

Another protestor, Mark Sardine, said he is a Kayaka who recently crossed the Bequia channel.

He said he decided to join the protest because he is not willing to sit down and watch people suffer without doing something about it.

He stressed that one of his main issues is that some children may not be able to go to school because their parents lost their jobs because of their decision regarding the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.