Cummings: NDP doesn’t do window dressing

Only three days after New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Lauron ‘Shearer’ Baptiste made questionable comments regarding female candidates running for the NDP, another of that party’s candidates has made similar comments.

In an interview on BOOM 106.9 SVG’s ‘OMG In The Morning’ radio programme last Tuesday, NDP candidate for West Kingstown Daniel Cummings said that his party has no female candidates{{more}} in the upcoming general election because it “doesn’t do window dressing.”

“The NDP doesn’t do window dressing. You don’t select a woman for the sake of selecting a woman. You need a woman with proven competence,” insisted Cummings.

“You need a woman’s perspective on a number of things, especially in the Parliament… not women for the sake of women.”

When questioned about his opponent – Unity Labour Party (ULP) candidate Debbie Charles – in the West Kingstown constituency, he responded in a dismissive manner.

“Is there a woman candidate running in this election? A woman? But I didn’t know that. Why didn’t you tell me that?” he mused.

“To be honest I didn’t know there was somebody running against me.”

Cummings also had negative things to say about Rishatha Nicholls, the former secretary of NDP president Arnhim Eustace, who has publicly switched her allegiance to the ULP.

Insinuating that Nicholls was dishonest and indiscreet in carrying out her secretarial duties, Cummings said: “This woman has been brazen enough to put herself up as a bastion of virtue, and I wish to God she wouldn’t do that… That young lady is totally incompetent; her training is almost zero. She is rude, she is the most common person I’ve ever come across. She has no respect for herself. She is not fit to be a secretary…”

Nicholls worked with Eustace for 12 years before she was fired in March 2013.

“Imagine, you as the Leader of the Opposition having a secretary who goes without asking or telling, and speaks with the Prime Minister of the country at odd hours!” he lamented.

“I want to tell her that nobody in the ULP thinks that she is worth anything, but they are using her in an extreme way. I feel sorry for her because she is a mother and a woman.”

SEARCHLIGHT reported in its November 24 edition that at a political rally in Bequia last Saturday, Lauron Baptiste, NDP candidate for North Windward said that his party does not need female candidates.

“You know the Unity Labour Party say that the NDP, we don’t have no women as candidates. But we don’t need no women as candidate. If we have all them women here supporting the New Democratic Party, it says something,” he insisted.

“I know… we have more women supporting us than the ULP… All the women in the ULP now is running from Ralph Gonsalves and coming to join the New Democratic Party.” (JSV)