ST. VINCENT: – Edwin Snagg, of the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP), has said that Senator St. Clair Leacock, the opposition New Democratic Party’s (NDP) candidate for central Kingstown, invaded a ULP rally in Green Hill last Thursday.
Snagg, who is Director of Grenadines Affairs, said while the Leacock’s alleged presence at the meeting was a “dangerous situation” and anything could have happened, the “discipline” exercised by ULP supporters shows that democracy is “alive and well” in SVG.
“Comrades, democracy is alive and well. At our meeting … in Green Hill on Thursday, we had St. Clair Leacock in the meeting,” Snagg said. (Go to the homepage to subscribe to I Witness-News)
“I ain’t talking about sitting down in a vehicle somewhere on the side, on the periphery, and listening. [I am] talking about coming, standing up in the crowd, and not only so, come down and stand up in front [of] the platform,” Snagg told ULP supporters in Rose Hall on Sunday, Sept. 19.
He said that there could be no better demonstration of democracy even as he congratulated ULP supporters for the “discipline” they displayed in the “volatile situation”.
“Democracy is alive and well in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It can’t be better than that. I want to pass a special message to all those who were present at Green Hill Thursday night. [I] want to thank you for the discipline you displayed. [I] want to thank you for the resilience that you displayed,” he said.
“Because it could have also been a very dangerous situation; because you only had to have one person who lost their bearing and there could have been some difficulties,” added Snagg, who chaired the meeting in Rose Hall. (Follow I Witness-News on Facebook)
“Because, when an opposition candidate invades the meeting of another and to stand right up in the platform, it is a dangerous
situation, it’s volatile, and anything could happen. We ain’t going do something like that. It was not a wise thing to do and I want to thank all those who greeted him, yo laugh, yo talk, you put yo ULP flag up and thing in front ah him. But let them go ahead with that. But, I am sure that democracy is alive and democracy is well in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” Snagg said.
Speaking at the same meeting, Luke Browne, the ULP’s candidate for East Kingstown, diagnosed the cause of prescribed treatment for the reported threat to democracy in the country.
Browne said that like the human body, if SVG is sick, “It is because antibodies, or foreign bodies, have invaded us and there is the need for us to find and expel these foreign bodies.”
He was echoing sentiments of his ULP that the NDP had aligned itself with foreign entities to undermine democracy in SVG.
“We have shown our ability to resist them before and we are going to show our ability to resist them again. So, comrades, I want you to take the fight to these foreign bodies and free democracy,” Browne said.