The Unity Labour Party (ULP) is making a lot of temporary arrangements for Vincentian but wants to remain in office permanently, says Conroy Huggins, the opposition New Democratic Party’s (NDP) candidate for Central Leeward.
“Everything temporary. Just over there, temporary schools. Girls High School, almost five years on the Tarmac,” he said Monday night at an NDP community meeting in Walvaroo, Sion Hill.
“Thomas Saunders, temporary schools, everything temporary; temporary, temporary. And this is why we need to get rid of them.”
Huggins, an educator who lost his job under the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in 2021, said that the Unity Labour Party government has neglected Central Leeward, although it has held the seat for about 30 years, including almost 25 years in government.
“I know from East Kingstown’s standpoint, you got this covered,” he said of the constituency that has remained in the NDP column since it was created in 1984.
“So, I want to make the appeal, especially for those of us in Central Leeward, that we have to bring this home and all the other constituencies because this election year is a year of change,” Huggins said.
“It cannot be more of the same. If we accept this nonsense that they’re talking about six in a row, we, as a people — I mean, I really, I can’t find words to describe if we as a people could make that decision, we cannot, and we should not.”
The ULP will seek a sixth consecutive term in office in general elections expected by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
Huggins made the point about the ULP being a “temporary government” as he highlighted, for another time, what he said was the ULP administration’s neglect of Central Leeward.
He noted that Central Leeward is the only constituency in St. Vincent and the Grenadines with two towns — Layou and Barrouallie — adding that the police station in each of those towns is in disrepair.
Huggins noted that in 2021, the government moved the Barrouallie Police Station, which had fallen into disrepair, to a rented house in Peter’s Hope and remained there for four years.
He said that during the Budget Debate in January, Central Leeward MP Ornado Brewster responded to his call for the police station to be relocated to Barrouallie.
“… the representative now for Central Leeward say, … we going to move back the police station from the rent house in Peter’s Hope and we’re going to carry it back to Barrouallie, but we go put it in the community centre downstairs, and we go work out something temporary.”
Huggins said that in Layou, the inside and outside of the police station are just as bad, with grass growing in the guttering around the roof.
“And I am at a loss that after almost 25 years in government, … the state resources at their disposal, different ministers of security, three different representatives, and the conditions of those police stations are so deplorable.
“The people of Central Leeward say none of our towns are really like towns, because we do not have security concerns. The Minister of National Security seems not to care about our security.”
Huggins said the neglect is also seen in the playing fields in Barrouallie and the state of the roads in the constituency.
Huggins said he and NDP senator Israel Bruce, the party’s candidate for South Central Windward appeared on a media show last week “and we were literally trying to figure out who has the worst roads in their constituency.
“I am personally convinced that it is in Central Leeward,” Huggins said.