“Every billboard which the Unity Labour Party (ULP) has put up was done so with the permission of the planning authorities.”
Prime Minister and Political Leader of the ULP, Dr Ralph Gonsalves said in response to a conversation on radio on April 14 about two ULP billboards that were partially burnt at Frenches.
“They are in accordance with the planning authorities, that’s fact number 1; fact number 2 – the billboards at the entrance of the city, they are not on public property, they are on private property,” Gonsalves said.
And thirdly, according to the prime minister there was no law or sensibility connected to civilization or civilized life and living to say that you cannot have billboards up after elections.
“In the United States, in Canada, in Britain you see them,” Gonsalves contended.
In the US, the election campaign is a continuous one, he reasoned and there are billboards all over the country.
He explained that under the Representation of the People’s Act (RPA) on election day, buntings, banners and images and the like are not allowed to be on display, however in instances where such items are located within proximity to a polling station, they are covered.
The prime minister went on to indicate that this was not the first time that ULP billboards were burnt, and that those recently targeted by vandals were done during the early hours of the morning following the political party’s 23rd anniversary rally held at the decommissioned E.T Joshua airport on April 7.
Regarding the perpetrator(s), Gonsalves said that there was no evidence to suggest that anybody connected to the Opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) burnt the billboards, or that the NDP hired somebody to do it or that it was done with the approval of the NDP.
But no one in the ULP would burn their own billboards Gonsalves said.
“Nobody who supports the ULP will burn their own billboards. I’m not saying that anybody who is supporting the NDP did the burning. But I’m stating what we can reasonably present as facts and evidence.”
He spoke on the issue in response to an earlier caller who expressed the view that it was a shameful act for the government to still have the posters up.
“You know, it’s a pretence of mind control, psychological control of a people,” the caller said.