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Member of Parliament for Central Kingstown, St. Clair Leaock. (iWN file photo)
Member of Parliament for Central Kingstown, St. Clair Leaock. (iWN file photo)
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An opposition lawmaker appears to be so convinced that his colleagues are the legitimate government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines that they should sit in the government benches in Parliament.

“As a matter of fact, you know, left to me alone, I wudda done gone over on the other side and take up my seat, you know. It’s my friends who tell me I can’t do that, but that is my position,” St. Clair Leacock said on Saturday.

He was speaking at a rally, in Georgetown, of the New Democratic Party of which he is one of two vice presidents.

Leacock said that he sees it as his job to ensure that opposition leader and NDP president, Godwin Friday is the next prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

“That you can be assured of,” said Leacock, who is into his second five-year term as Member of Parliament for Central Kingstown.

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Leacock was speaking at a rally where Lauron “Sharer” Baptiste spoke of some of the evidence adduced during the trial of the election petition that he has brought.

Baptiste, who was the NDP’s candidate in North Windward, is challenging the announced victory of the Unity Labour Party’s Montgomery Daniel in that district in the December 2015 general election.

At the rally, Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, a lawyer, NDP senator and Lauron’s wife, also spoke to the issues in the petition, in which she is a member of the NDP’s legal team.

The NDP’s Benjamin “Ben” Exeter has also brought a case challenging the results in Central Leeward, where the ULP’s Sir Louis Straker was declared the winner.

Leacock said he could understand the issues that the petitioners have raised, saying he was similarly disadvantaged in 2005, his first outing at the polls, when he lost by 14 votes to the ULP’s Conrad Sayers.

“I can’t make the case as good as sister Kay or her husband with respect to the elections outcome, but I have every reason to believe them because I sat in the court through most of the deliberations and the presentations.

“And I know for a fact, as far back as in 2005, that they teef. Because when they say that I lost by 14 votes, I never lost an election in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. They teef, hands down.

“And all the things that have come out here in 2015, I took ‘Stalky’ John as my lawyer to the police barracks to deal with those same issues. You couldn’t find the counterfoils, you couldn’t find the key for the ballot boxes, you had more ballots at the end of the day than at the start of the day, and the stubs couldn’t balance,” Leacock said.

“There are so many irregularities — well, I wouldn’t say irregularities because what we call irregularities in St. Vincent, in America, they call it wrongdoings. I believe America has the better word. There are simply too many wrongdoings and we have to bring it to an end.”

8 replies on “Opposition MPs should sit in gov’t benches — lawmaker”

  1. It is refreshing that Leacock brought up the 2005 election. I remember what he is talking about. If such things happened anywhere else the election would be nullified. It is so sad and shameful that such things are allowed in SVG. Some people commenting on this site will put thier stamp of approval on that 2005 election by saying it is just the usual SVG incompetence. I also remember an election where it took hours for one polling station on the Leeward to bring the votes in for counting after the poll had closed. The NDP were so far ahead and the results from that station had the ULP miraculously come from behind and win that seat.

  2. C. ben-David says:

    “Irregularities” and “wrongdoing” are not the same as “tief.” The NDP is actually provoking mass hysteria while vilifying honest though incompetent election officials just to score a few cheap political points. Shame on them.

    1. How quickly we forget how ULP first got into power, “provoking mass hysteria” and blocking roads. Making the country “ungovernable” during a legitimate 5 year term.

      1. That man is a particularly evil person. always want to come and school the dunce and semi illiterate. If you ever read that he say one good thing it is because he wants to win favor. But if you examine his writings good you will find that he is the enemy of SVG and it’s people. I don’t think that that fake and dutty-mouth-bullaman is a Vincentian.

  3. I HOPE THERE IS A LAW THAT SAYS A PETITION OF SUCH , CANNOT BE APPEALED .
    ON THE BASES OF NATIONAL INTEREST , THE COUNTRY SIMPLY CANNOT BE STAGNATED AND DRAINED OF ITS FINANCIAL OR JUDICIAL RESOURCES !!!!!!!!!
    LET THIS MARCH 21ST DECISION BE FINAL !!!

  4. ON THAT SAME TOKEN ,” PIGGYBACK” ON MY LAST COMMENT……A PETITION OF SUCH NATURE SHOULD BE ADJUDICATED BY A PANEL OF JUSTICES FOR UTMOST DUE DILIGENCE .
    PITY THE INCOMPETENCE ON ACCURATELY BEGINNING THE PETITION ALMOST FIVE YEARS AGO WAS BLUNDERED BY THE OPPOSITION .

  5. Ricardo Francis says:

    When are you going to CROSS the floor, St. Clair Leacok? Before the election and after the elections to assist the Pharaoh Leader?

    Do you need a negotiator to assist you, in the process?

    Ricardo Francis, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in Waiting and in the Making

  6. I was in Vincy during those protests in 2000 and there was a wave of supporters for the ULP at that time,The crowds were huge.I really believe if elections are called today the NDP has a very good chance of forming government however, the NDP still lacks and can’t seem to get the populace to rally behind them like the ULP did in 2000.That is something that should be worrying to the NDP.

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