Last Updated on January 17, 2020, 9:37 AM AST by Anthony Morris
The government and leadership of St Kitts and Nevis ‘Team Unity’ recently had a press conference regarding several issues concerning the society and economy of the nation.
Sources of SKN News reported that Team Unity and its leaders organised a secretive meeting immediately following the press conference, where the next candidate for Prime Minister was decided.
As per the sources, Mark Brantley, who is currently the Premier of Nevis and the leader of the Concerned Citizens Movement, was chosen to be the face of the upcoming general elections 2020.
Brantley is reportedly now the party’s choice to be the next candidate for Prime Minister in 2020. Besides this, sources also confirmed that negotiations have been on-going within the party over the last few months about choosing Brantley as the leader of the alliance.
However, Team Unity is yet to confirm these claims officially but are assumed to make the announcement very soon.
Mark Brantley is currently the Minister of Foreign Affairs under the ‘Team Unity’ government and is also a distinguished leader from Nevis who is known for his tough, fearless leadership.
Team Unity, an alliance of three major political parties, the People’s Action Movement (PAM), the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), and the People’s Labour Party (PLP) holds a majority in parliament, with 7 out of a total of 11 seats.
The question still remains as to why current Prime Minister Timothy Harris is no longer regarded as the face for the upcoming general elections that will be due in May.
Rumours suggest that current Prime Minister Dr Harris’ leadership may be accountable for the fall of the Team Unity government in 2020, and that Mark Brantley is potentially the only leader with the ability to save the alliance from the current political crisis in the country.
The incumbent Prime Minister is the only one from his People’s Labour Party to be successful in the 2015 general elections. However, the economy of SKN, which is entirely based on tourism, has struggled under his leadership as no new projects were initiated by his government to improve the sector.
All the hotels and tourist spots in the country were constructed by the previous government, including the famous ‘Port Zante’ shopping complex, the JW Marriott Hotel, the Park Hyatt Hotel, and the Hilton KOI Resort. As well as this, Labour were successful in inviting British Airways and American Airlines to land at the Robert L. Bradshaw Airport. Despite these successes, Prime Minister Timothy Harris, on 12 January, tried to take credit for Labour’s accomplishments in a video shared to his official Facebook account.
The current Prime Minister, however, failed to mention that his government has only delivered one project in the last 5 years – the addition of the second cruise pier at Port Zante, which has since been lauded by experts as faulty, and represents an unfortunate waste of $150,000,000 of the nation’s taxpayers’ money.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
