The opposition New Democratic Party’s (NDP) candidate for North Leeward, Kishore Shallow, says he has “files” on members of the ruling Unity Labour Party (ULP) and will seek permission from his party leader, Godwin Friday, to release them during the election campaign.
He spoke of the “files” at the NDP campaign in Biabou Saturday night, for at least the second time during the campaign.
Shallow said that Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves had attacked his integrity during the campaign over the last week, adding that he had an obligation to his deceased mother to defend his integrity as she raised him well.
Shallow also defended Kashaka Cupid, another first-time candidate who will represent the NDP in West St. George, against statements made about him during the election campaign.
He said he has known Cupid since they were 12 or 13 years old and described him as “a man of great integrity, too”.
“And I hear they’re going down tha road dey. So, if they want to go down that road, we’re going to expose them,” Shallow said.
He asked Vynnette Frederick, who chaired Saturday’s meeting, to pass him his brief bag.
“I told you all I had a case with files,” Shallow told the crowd, adding, “You want something from the case?
“Oh, they got away,” Shallow said, adding that he had to get permission from Friday first.
“I might tell y’all just now, but in this case, we will tell you who all own all kind of properties across the Caribbean. I will tell you all who own businesses and competing with the Vincentians. I know how much money they’re making, millions of dollars, not even paying taxes. We are going to expose them one by one in this campaign,” Shallow said.
“We are not playing games with this country. Election is serious business, and if they want to continue to play like they could fool Vincentians, we are going to expose them, and we are going to ensure that every last one of them drop. And that is why I say 15-nil,” Shallow said.
Earlier, Shallow responded to comments that Gonsalves had made while campaigning earlier in the week.
‘Please, Shallow. Do not do it.’
He told NDP supporters that, in light of his position as president of Cricket West Indies (CWI), he went to Gonsalves last year to inform him that he was entering national politics.
“The only thing the fellow didn’t do is go on his knees and beg me,” Shallow said, speaking of the conversation, parts of which Gonsalves had made public more than a year ago, adding that he might speak further on it in the future.
Gonsalves had given some insights into the conversation on Sept. 18, 2024, less than 12 hours after Shallow was selected as the NDP’s candidate for North Leeward.
He said Shallow had joined the opposition because his “star” would not be as bright in the ULP.
In his comments in September 2024, the prime minister said he had had an appointment with Shallow, who “wanted to see me to talk about something local and national.
“We had a very interesting conversation on national things, and I may talk about some of those things sometime in the future,” the prime minister had said.
He had continued:
“Except to say this, and I wouldn’t say more than this: If a man considered himself a star and there is a firmament where there are lots of stars and one where there is darkness, perversely, he gets attracted to that where there is darkness because his presumed star, he thinks, may shine.
“But if you come in a galaxy of stars, as in the ULP, if you think you are a bright star, your star will be dimmed in this galaxy of brightness.”
Courtesy visit to the PM
Shallow gave his version of the meeting conversation on Saturday, when he told NDP supporters that he had gone to see Gonsalves as a courtesy, in light of his post as CWI president.
“Now I am a man with great integrity, and I take it very seriously, and I would not allow any single one to tarnish my reputation,” Shallow told NDP supporters in Biabou on Saturday.
“My mother grow me well, and so when people come and talk nonsense, it’s an obligation for me to defend myself,” Shallow said, adding that he had said previously that he is not turning the cheek.
“If you come here, punch me, ah fighting back. We peaceful and we don’t trouble people, but if you trouble us, we’re going to defend ourselves.”
Shallow said that as CWI president, when he decided to enter national politics, he “found it only prudent and responsible of me to go to the prime minister of this country and tell him that I am going to be a candidate in the national election…
“I say, ‘Prime Minister, I am going to be a candidate for the New Democratic Party in the upcoming elections. And I’m informing you because I know we’ll have to interact in my role as the president of Cricket West Indies,” Shallow said.
“The only thing the fellow didn’t do is go on his knees and beg me. The man start to tell me, ‘Please, Shallow. Do not do it.’
“I said, ‘Prime Minister, I have made up my mind and I am going to join Dr. Friday and his team… Prime Minister, there is absolutely no way I could be in a party with the likes of Camillo, of Saboto and I went down and I named every single one of them. … We are not aligned on principle, and I cannot join your party.’
“He continued to beg, because alyo I know him,” Shallow said, adding that as much as Gonsalves talks about him, the prime minister only recently learnt his name.
“He used to call me ‘Kishorn’. He said, ‘Brother Kishorn, oh God, if you’re going to run, don’t run this time here… Give Carlos one more chance.’
“I said, ‘Prime Minister, I have made up my mind, and we will see and we will interact in my regional role.’ And I left his office peacefully.”
Shallow wants to become opposition Leader, Gonsalves says
Shallow was responding to Gonsalves’ comments to voters last week that Shallow was telling people that he joined the NDP because there are “too many bright men and women inside of the ULP”.
The prime minister claimed that Shallow had told a woman that very morning that he is not liked in the NDP and that they are jealous of him and want to sideline him.
“And Shallow is telling everybody he wants the ULP to win the election, but he wah win his seat so you will become leader of the opposition, and that’s the best chance he going have to become prime minister in 2030,” Gonsalves said.
The prime minister said any man can dream.
“… Shallow prefer the ULP to win the election and he win his seat and they vote him to be leader over Friday because Friday, knocking he head up, 70 years old, and everybody know Friday is a lazy man,” Gonsalves, 79, said of the 66-year-old opposition Leader.