“I actually want to vote and I’m not voting for Chevonne. … I’m telling you, I support people who support me,” says Abdon Whyte, a Union Island ULP activist, who himself wanted to be his party’s candidate for the Southern Grenadines but was rejected by the ULP head hunter.
If Abdon Whyte will not vote for Chevonne Stewart who was shoved upon the party’s supporters, why should Southern Grenadines people vote for her when her very own ULP members are not voting for her? Not only will Chevonne Stewart not get the votes of Whyte and his family, but she is not likely to get the votes of Whyte’s fellow ULP activists — Lesroy Noel, Derek Charles, Edwin Snagg, and their families. Where is the “UNITY” in Gonsalves’ Unity Labour Party? No wonder SVG has been so politically divided under his autocratic misrule for the last 25 years!
Whyte described Chevonne as classist with no deep connection to the Southern Grenadines. He has, in fact, echoed the exact sentiments which I have expressed in an earlier article about Chevonne’s disconnection to Union Island and the Southern Grenadines. She introduces herself to the residents, as the daughter of Hugh Stewart — who lives in Marriaqua, … in order to garner support for her unqualified and weak candidacy and to link her remote connection to the people and the island.
She goes from being the Chief Radiographer at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital to now the Lumber Galvanise & Cement Distribution Officer (LUMGACEDO) for Union Island, under the Ministry of Housing. Sadly, the LUMGACEDO’s training as chief radiographer is now sacrificed at the altar of political expediency with disdain for proper health care in SVG. Gonsalves couldn’t care less about health services in SVG because he can fly with a medical team to Barbados for him to receive dressing for a simple “head scratch”. No wonder the health care in the country is in such a mess!
This LUMGACEDO now gets to decide who will receive and who will not receive material assistance for our taxpayers-funded materials. Almost every house on Union Island has been destroyed by Beryl and as a consequence, every homeowner needs rebuilding assistance. Why must she be allowed the privilege to decide who gets from those who do not get material assistance and in what order? According to Whyte, who gave a damning indictment of the failure and incompetence of Gonsalves’ regime, “I think they need proper guidance. I think they’re kind of all over the place and they need to refocus properly.” With that level of incompetence and chaos under the ULP regime, why should the country now run the risk of putting them back in office for a sixth term?
Chevonne and the Head Hunter have now gone to the Southern Grenadines far more frequently in the last two months than they have ever gone before, harbouring the unlikely hope of winning that constituency. The almost-80-year-old Head-Hunter, who promised the Vincentian people in 2001 that he would not spend more than two terms, is now aggressively desperate to stay in power. He is hoping that the LUMGACEDO’s candidacy would magically create a political upset in an environment where all indications show that the ULP would be booted out of office. The intelligent people of the Southern Grenadines whom they have mistreated and taken for granted will never allow them this privilege of winning the Southern Grenadines, ever!
A True Union Island Resident
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