Friday, Gonsalves clash in House

Last Tuesday’s sitting of the House of Assembly brought to the fore the bitter rivalry of party politics in a clash between Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves and Dr. Godwin Friday, the New Democratic Party(NDP) parliamentary representative for the Northern Grenadines.

The Northern Grenadines member rose in angry fashion as he took “strong objection” to what he ascribed as lies by the Prime Minister. {{more}}

But, Dr. Gonsalves rose to clarify his position and pointed out to Dr. Friday that he had not accused him of lying.

“I never said the honourable member lied,” Dr. Gonsalves said as he indicated that Dr. Friday put a “spin on [the issue] from which dishonest conclusions could be made”.

Dr. Friday was at the time filling in for Southern Grenadines colleague Terrance Ollivierre who was absent from the sitting, and posed on his behalf questions surrounding the prize for the “Set for Life” winner in the game put on by the National Lotteries Authority in observance of their 20th anniversary.

The draw was made July 17 with Stella Williams from New Grounds winning the grand prize, which included $50,000 cash, a Nissan Pathfinder valued at $102,000, and a house built at Buccament.

Dr. Gonsalves indicated that the contractors were supposed to have handed over the building by July 15, but that the delivery was not made until October 2.

Speaker of the House Hendrick Alexander noted that time had overtaken the question, with the distribution of the prizes to winners completed last week. But Dr. Gonsalves seemed glad for the opportunity to ridicule the opposition party and its choice of questions.

A number of students from the Barrouallie Secondary School were in the House.