Matthews disputes ULP version of bottle incident

New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate for North Leeward Roland ‘Patel’ Matthews thinks that the Unity Labour Party’s (ULP) candidate for the area Carlos James should have thought long and hard before discharging his firearm in that constituency last Friday night.

In an interview yesterday, Matthews said that Petit Bordel still has sour memories of gun related incidents and that James should have kept a cool head {{more}}and not resort to such an action.

On November 13, sometime after 9 p.m., a few supporters of the ULP gathered at Matthias ‘Officer’ Nanton’s shop in Petit Bordel for a ‘Red Lime,’ while NDP supporters had gathered at Matthews’ shop, a few yards away, to hang out.

Matthews said he was told that an NDP supporter went into the ULP crowd and attempted to dance with a woman and was shoved away twice before he himself pushed the woman. He then went back to the NDP crowd at Matthews’ shop where after a few minutes, he was accosted by the ULP woman’s boyfriend and his brother.

According to Matthews, the two men came to his shop, called the NDP man’s name and when he looked around, they threw bottles at him, missed him and struck other people, at which time the NDP supporters at his shop began pelting bottles in retaliation.

“I was not on the spot when the incident took place,” said Matthews, who revealed that he was at Heritage Square where the NDP was hosting an event.

He said his wife called to tell him what was happening and he immediately travelled to Petit Bordel where he met the police, a number of NDP and ULP supporters and James.

He said that people who were on the scene told him what had happened, while a few NDP supporters showed him cuts they suffered from broken bottles. He noted also that a few ULP supporters were also injured.

Matthew said his wife and other persons called the police, but before the police came, persons said that they heard two gunshots and some people took cover, but the bottle pelting did not stop.

He said in his opinion, having a licensed gun does not mean that you can discharge a firearm in public like that.

“I would not have discharged in a volatile situation like that. Suppose someone from my side had done something like that?

“…doing that in the public domain and your life is not in danger was wrong because when you have a firearm it is for protection of yourself, family and home, but you can’t tell me you at an event with bottle pelting and you do that.

“A young lady who heard the gunshot ran and fell and I had to take her to the hospital the day after. She panicked and ran. That shows inexperience and arrogance; better leadership should had been displayed.”

Matthews said that even after the gunshots went off, the pelting did not stop.

“…it continued for a little while and when the police got there they were able to bring things under control. I understand that two persons were detained by the police… and released the same night.”

Matthews condemned election violence.

“I don’t believe that in an election this should happen; fight hard yes, but people should be able to control and restrain themselves.”

Matthews said that he listened to James and read his Facebook post where he said that the ULP is under attack in Petit Bordel, when he, James, knew that was not the case. He said also that James did not mention that he had fired his gun.

Matthews said that once the investigation into the matter is done properly, police will be able to determine how the incident started.

“… we will know who drew first blood when this bottle pelting started and who started the pelting of bottles and when the truth comes out I am expecting an apology from those who erroneously claim that NDP people started the bottle pelting. That is not so.”

Matthews, who has been involved in politics for approximately 20 years, said that he was aware that with elections on December 9, tempers will flare, “because elections are very passionate, but I am appealing for persons to be calm, love your party, but leave the violence out of it.”

In relation to James’ ability to dethrone him in North Leeward, Matthews describes that as “laughable” and noted that there are always huge gatherings of Petit Bordel residents at his shop while on the night the incident took place, James had brought persons from Chateaubelair and Rose Bank to make up numbers.

“….every person at my shop was from Petit Bordel…the record will show that when it comes to politics, Petit Bordel is a stronghold for the NDP, so when Mr James is trying to prop himself up, I have to laugh. I don’t think that he should count his eggs before they hatch. I think when the election is over and the results are in he can say whether or not people from Petit Bordel are coming over to him.”

Matthews said that while one or two persons have shifted, the shift has come on either side, but it is not much to make a huge difference.

He said that in politics, you must be smart and know when and where to campaign.

“After examining this whole thing. While I agree that SVG is a free place and we should be able to go anywhere there are some places that we have to learn from our experiences. This election I have learnt that people are very aggressive, I see it every day. I also know that there are areas in North Leeward that ULP is very strong and I also know there are people who tend to do things to disrupt meetings and I prefer in those areas to do house to house campaign and something like a town hall meeting.

“There are one or two areas that I will prefer this. I know 95 per cent of persons have already, throughout SVG, decided who they are going to support. I know that. There are strongholds for both parties. We have limited resources and we are doing a strategic campaign,” said Matthews.