Accusation by woman against PM fits NDP’s platform agenda – Astaphan

The allegation made against the Prime Minister last Saturday evening at a Town Hall meeting in New York has a certain stink about it.

Anthony Astaphan, a lawyer who has represented Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves in several matters, says he believes that the allegation by a woman that Gonsalves attacked her when she was a teenager is part of a plan by the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP).{{more}}

“The timing, the location, just has a certain stink about it that makes me believe that that was a plan, because that has been part of the NDP’s strategy for over 15 years now, to paint the Prime Minister in a very bad light,” Astaphan said yesterday morning, during an interview on the OMG morning show on 106.9 Boom FM.

The senior counsel said in the past, there had been two other allegations of sexual misconduct against the Prime Minister that got nowhere, and he found it odd that someone would ask that question at that time.

“…I just find it odd, … that the Prime Minister would be in a town hall meeting and someone would ask about the citizenship of Straker, an obvious political question, and then make the suggestion about some allegation of assault by the Prime Minister when that person was 15 years old.”

The woman making the allegation, who identified herself as Miranda Wood, had also asked the Prime Minister why had Deputy Prime Minister Sir Louis Straker not presented to the public documentation to prove that he had denounced citizenship of the United States.

When pressed by host Dwight “Bing” Joseph as to why he thought Wood’s allegation was orchestrated by the NDP, Astaphan responded, “It may not come directly out of the camp, but it is part of the overall scenario that the NDP has been pushing for a long time.

“It fits the agenda and the platform of the NDP,” Astaphan said.

Astaphan agreed with Joseph that what had transpired was defamation of Gonsalves’ character, but having been involved in such matters for a very long time, he had never advised a prime minister to decide to sue without considering the context, the intent, the public reaction.

“This is a tired story, this is a very tired story,” Astaphan said.

“The NDP has made this part of their culture for the last 15 years,” the lawyer, a citizen of Dominica said.

He said one option may be not to give the allegation life by taking legal action, but by dealing with it by rubbishing it politically.

Astaphan, however, said the decision whether or not to go forward with legal action would have to be made by the Prime Minister.