KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace has not told party chair Dr. Linton Lewis who will replace sacked senator, Anesia Baptiste, in the nation’s Parliament but Lewis is not counting himself out, he said on radio Thursday.
Lewis, in response to a caller’s question, said he did not wish to discuss how his New Democratic Party (NDP) goes about selecting senators.
He had complained to the media that Eustace did not consult him before appointing Baptiste and Vynnette Frederick as senators after the 2010 general election.
As the head of the opposition in the nation’s Parliament, Eustace is entitled to select two senators.
He said on Monday that he would over the next few days announce who will replace Baptiste, whom he fired last Thursday.
Sources tell I-Witness News that Eustace might announce the new senator between Friday and Monday, ahead of a meeting of Parliament scheduled for next week.
Lewis declining to comment on the senator appointment process, saying “everything that happens in an organisation is not for the consumption of the public”.
“I don’t want to be involved in making any self-serving statements,” he said when asked if he thinks he would be appointed.
He, however, said that like anyone in the NDP, he has his expectations of being placed in positions to help the party development.
He stopped mid-sentence while responding to the caller’s comments that if appointed senator he would be second choice to Baptiste.
“Why do you say second choice? Well there is –- well anyway,” Lewis said.
But he said that as a cricketer, he knows that sometimes the best of balls outs a batsman while the worst “can be dispatched to the boundary”.
Lewis, a lawyer and accountant, has failed in three consecutive attempts to win East St. George for the NDP.
He, however, successfully fended off an attempt by West Kingstown representative, Daniel Cummings, and Baptiste to wrestle the chair of the party from him during internal elections at the NDP’s convention last November.