Building earmarked to be NDP constituency office defaced

Members of the Sion Hill community woke yesterday morning to find one of the more prominent buildings in the neighbourhood defaced with red paint – a building that is earmarked to be the constituency office of opposition leader and parliamentary representative {{more}}for East Kingstown Arnhim Eustace.

The upstairs portion of the building, located at the Sion Hill intersection, is being refurbished to accommodate its new function, and had been painted yellow, the colour of the New Democratic Party (NDP), within the past week.

The colour of the governing Unity Labour Party (ULP) is red.

NDP campaign manager Elmore Edwards said that the party is aware of the incident but is “not perturbed” by it.

“We are aware of the vandalism that has taken place up there. We are monitoring the situation and we shall be in a position to make a statement sooner rather than later,” explained Edwards.

He further asserted that the act is a reflection of how things will be after the next general election – in that “every colour will have a place.”

Luke Browne, the ULP candidate for East Kingstown told SEARCHLIGHT in an interview yesterday that he had spoken about the matter on Star FM radio, denying any involvement in the matter.

“I don’t want this to detract from the substance of my campaign and what I am hoping to do in East Kingstown. So, I made the offer on radio… to say that I am even prepared to help them to restore it to its original colour. I think that that’s the reasonable thing to do,” asserted Browne.

He added: “I don’t have anything to do with it and I don’t want this to be something that distracts people from the real issues. The real issue is that this campaign is about getting proper representation for East Kingstown.”

Browne, whose constituency office is located just a few yards from the building that was defaced said that he has “no clue at all” about the person/persons who may be responsible for the act.

“I was surprised this morning when I received the information that it had been done.”

Up to press time, SEARCHLIGHT was unable to reach Eustace, who has been representative of the constituency for the past 17 years.(JSV)