NDP switches to election mode

The opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), buoyed by the success of its “Vote No” referendum{{more}} campaign last year, switched to “election mode” on Sunday, “confident” of its “destiny of forming the next government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG)”.

“The November referendum revealed the strength of our New Democratic Party, when a strategy is well presented and organised, both in terms of principles spelled out in the campaign, and getting together and efficient structure on Election Day,” NDP founder and former Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell said at the NDP’s 32nd convention at Democrat House.

“Vincentians do not tire yet, do not long for sleep, the work of nation-building and rebuilding is begun,” said NDP president Arnhim Eustace, who was not challenged for leadership of the party.

“Today, Sunday, 18th July 2010, in the 35th year of this political party, the NDP declares that this is the age of integrity and achievement,” said Eustace, who is also Leader of the Opposition and Member of Parliament for East Kingstown.

The party President tabled the NDP’s proposal for SVG, should the populace again endorse the party that governed the nation for 17 consecutive years.

Eustace said “tackling the state of our economy” would be top priority for the NDP.

The NDP would place emphasis on agricultural diversification, he said, as outlined the party’s plans for health, educators and other sectors of the economy.

NDP Chairman Dr. Linton Lewis said that since losing 12-3 to the Unity Labour Party (ULP) in 2001 and again in 2005, the NDP has “gone back to the drawing board” and done “institutional strengthening”.

“We have reached a stage where we can take no more at the hands of the Unity Labour Party. And we are saying to them that there is only one way to prosperity,” said Lewis who is the NDP’s candidate for East St. George.

“There is only one way to a better life in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and that is to vote and support the New Democratic Party,” Lewis said of the party that governed this country from 1984 to 2000.

Lewis said the governing ULP announced seven months ago its election campaign theme.

He said it was “Let us not leave behind an unfinished task,” adding that that is the name of a hymn usually sung at funerals.

Lewis, a trained lawyer and accountant, said the funeral was the ULPs and read from Revelations 21.

He lead the standing room only audience in singing “The Lord shall wipe away all tears from my eyes,” even as he told party supporters “Victory is nigh! Victory is nigh!”

Lewis said there was a lack of representation under the ULP and the nation was spending significantly more on food imports than it earned from exports in agriculture.

Mitchell said the 35-year-old NDP was “born out of sacrifice”, with a literal baptism of filth for him and “a small band of brothers” at the Old Market Square.

“Symbolically, I had to clean up the mess left by Labour in 1984 and I never dreamt that in my 79th year, 26 years later, I would be alive once more to clean up another Labour Party mess,” Mitchell said to cheers.

Mitchell, who retired from electoral politics in 2000, spoke of the conditions in SVG when his NDP first came to office.

He also addressed a number of national issues, including male underachievement and agricultural diversification, suggesting that the nation considers cocoa cultivation.

Mitchell likened the international airport to a seine, which fishermen, after hauling it to the shore, realised was torn and had no fish inside.

He also spoke about the Ottley Hall fiasco, a project implemented during his administration that was valued at between $3.5 million and $7 million but left the nation with a debt of $200 million.

He said the onus was on the government to prove that he had done something illegal.

“If the policeman charge you for theft, the policeman has to show what you steal. And he has to say how much and he has to say when and where,” Mitchell said.

“What the hell do I have to say when I know I thief nuttin?” he said to laughter.

“I want to say to you: My conscience is as clear as the waters flowing down the mountain side to Majorca,” he said, in reference to a local water catchment area, even as he refused to testify at the Ottley Hall Commission of Inquiry.

Mitchell also demanded an apology from NDP candidate Burton Williams for running against the party in the 1994 elections.

Last November, 55.64% (29,019) of voters voted against proposed changes to the nation’s 1979 constitution while 43.13% (22,493) opted for the new constitution. THE NDP had led the “Vote No” campaign against the proposed changes.