Williams ready with his red running boots for South Leeward

Grenville Williams, the head of this country’s Financial Intelligence Unit, says that he too has his eyes on the South Leeward constituency, as part of the Unity Labour Party’s elections slate of candidates.{{more}}

Williams, speaking exclusively to SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, said that he is ready to deliver the seat back to the ULP fold, if he is the man chosen to be on the party’s ticket, when the next general elections are called.

His statement follows an announcement on Monday by lawyer and Government Senator Jomo Thomas that he intends to become the ULP’s South Leeward candidate and recapture the seat for the party.

“I am absolutely convinced without a shadow of doubt, that I would make the most outstanding candidate for the ULP in South Leeward,” Thomas said.

“I think (Nigel) Stephenson can be defeated and I intend to defeat him,” Thomas added.

Williams told Searchlight that he has had interest in the constituency even before the last elections, but is now taking his cue from the people on the ground who continue to encourage him to seek political office.

“There is a mechanism in a democracy where the party has to decide whether by the voice of the people directly, by an electoral process where there is a run off between candidates, or a decision may be made otherwise, but I believe the first hurdle is being selected by the party as its candidate for any given constituency,” Williams, who is also a lawyer said.

“For a very long time, persons in my specific neck of the woods of Lower Questelles have said to me, even before 2010 that they would be very pleased if I were to represent them in parliament. This is something I’ve been hearing for a very long time; certainly you would appreciate that I am a young man and I needed to establish myself in my chosen career of law before I undertook such a charge. I needed to also prove myself that I am capable of delivering, that I am capable of leading and therefore immediately I did not respond to the call but it is a call that continued….”

Williams believes that he has satisfactorily proved himself, and thinks that it is time to make the next move.

Of his eleven years as an attorney, he has spent ten years at the FIU, moving from legal officer to the organization’s director.

He believes that his leadership skills at the unit are transferrable to the political arena, and his relationship with the people in the constituency is another strength that would make him the right person for the job.

“I am entrusted with an organization that is part of the national security apparatus; an organization that requires a person of strong character, a person of integrity… who can be trusted.

“I see myself being able to move these skills from this organization into government, and being able to therefore benefit all of St Vincent and the Grenadines by the application of those skills, so certainly people can trust me and they can trust me to deliver and attain results for them.

“In addition to that, interacting with people is something I enjoy and people have “resonated” with me, they have been sharing their views with me, telling me their interests, and I think once people “resonate” with you and they open up to you… it is an essential ingredient for anybody who wants to call themselves a servant of the people.

“It requires a person with leadership ability to bring people together to achieve that end.”

A confident Williams said that should he clear the hurdles of party selection and then the election race, he would ideally enjoy serving in an office that would see him focusing on job creation and entrepreneurship.

He indicated however, that regardless to who is selected to represent the party at the polls, he will give his support to that individual ‘one hundred per cent’, and he will continue to work with the people in the constituency.

“The party that I want to represent is called the Unity Labour Party, the first word in that acronym is called Unity, at the end of the day we have to look at good governance for St Vincent and the Grenadines, and at this point in time, good governance is represented by the policies of the ULP.”

Farmer David Browne, the ULP candidate in the last elections, lost to the New Democratic Party’s Nigel “Nature” Stephenson by 2,394 votes to 2,593, and is reported to be arranging to pursue university studies, opening the way for a new candidate.