SVG, at this moment, is at an incredibly significant crossroad- either to continue with the current malaise under the ULP or to forge a new path of community empowerment, economic growth and development in an era of transparency under the NDP. After 25 years of autocratic mismanagement, corruption, nepotism, cronyism, looting, pilfering and failed promises, the Head-Hunter and his gangrened bunch of buccaneers and pirates have lost their way and do not, under any circumstance, deserve another term.
The Vincentian electorate is at this moment suffering severely from ULP fatigue. Now, the people are disparately looking forward to a change. While the wind of change within the country is with the NDP in this election year cycle, the party should and must continue to make the case to the electorates why it should be elected to office, and therefore it must continue to campaign vigorously and strategically because the almost 80-year old Head-Hunter would not go quietly into his sunset.
The Southern Grenadines has always been represented by the New Democratic Party and should remain under NDP’s control. Its current representative and Union Island resident has followed in the footsteps of Mary Hutchinson, Stephanie Browne and Glenford Stewart before him. He has won every election since 2001 and is now the longest serving opposition MP for the Southern Grenadines. For the past 25 years, he has weathered the political storm under the Head-Hunter’s diatribes and insults aided and abetted by his speaker-cronies of the House.
This Constituency is the smallest within the state but it’s the most challenging of all the constituencies since we are dealing with three separate islands with their respective individual needs and challenges. Case in point, while there has been a secondary school on Union Island that accommodated students from Canouan and Mayreau over the years, Terrance Ollivierre has successfully made the case for the people of Canouan why they needed to have their own secondary school. In order to attend to the needs of the respective islands, Terrance Ollivierre must travel by boat to each of them, which is not the same as driving in an MP’s car from one part of a constituency to another as is the case on mainland St. Vincent. So, the challenge is real with little or no financial resources to meet the needs of the respective islands.
Terrance Ollivierre has been a champion in Parliament for educational development in SVG and he now deserves to be named Minister of Education under a new NDP administration. He has tirelessly advocated for the needs of his constituency in Parliament and in public forum. As an opposition MP there is not a whole lot that any representative can do to tangibly help his/her constituents save and except for his/her advocacy in Parliament. To make matters worse, the Head-hunter has refused to establish within the government bureaucracy the Constituency Development Fund advocated by the NDP, which would have made funds available to all MPs to assist their constituencies. To ensure that this particular Fund and other beneficial programmes and projects are put in place, it is imperative that the people of the Southern Grenadines and SVG respectively re-elect Terrance Ollivierre and the full slate of NDP candidates.
In some circles of the Southern Grenadines, particularly in Union Island, some disgruntled individuals from both sides of the political divide have been harbouring the view of throwing their support behind a spoiler independent candidate, who, though he was born in Union Island, has lived in the US for more than half his life, now decided to come back and the very first thing he wants to do is to contest the Southern Grenadines seat. He too chose to live on Mainland St. Vincent, and he is not well-known in the Southern Grenadines. I am not sure his name can appear on the ballot paper because of his US citizenship status.
I say to those folks, “This is simply not the time for any vote splitting; it is just not in your best interest politically to do so; don’t get left behind after the NDP’s victory.” And to him I say, “Abandon your pie-in-the-sky ambitions and throw your full weight behind Terrance Ollivierre now; you are still a relatively young man and your turn would come one day once you have sorted out your US citizenship status.” The people of the Southern Grenadines have no interest in any independent-spoiler candidate.
Following 25 years of ULP misrule, there’s now a seismic shift in support among the electorates towards NDP. There are also a lot of lights coming through the end of the tunnel; an NDP victory is in sight! But the party cannot rest on its laurels with complacency. Every right-thinking and conscientious individual must do his/her part to ensure that NDP victory. There is simply too much at stake in this election cycle to make any kind of blunder. So, in these upcoming elections, if your individual objective is to get rid of the ULP then you must cast your vote for Terrance Ollivierre and all the NDP candidates.
A true Union Island Resident