By Devonne Cornelius
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): The leadership of the People’s Action Movement (PAM) is coming into question following its loss in the National Assembly Elections held Friday, August 05.
On Wednesday, August 17, 2022, social commentator Dwyer Astaphan suggested that PAM may require new leadership and will have to consider refreshing and rebranding to recapture support.
“I think it is fair to say that time and again he demonstrated that he was not made of the stuff of leaders far less being made of the stuff of prime ministers. Just my honest observation, nothing personal. At the same time, Mr. [Shawn] Richards himself has to be at or approaching the realization that he is pretty much at the end of his road as PAM’s party leader and as a parliamentarian and he must be losing his appetite for all of this. He must be looking to move on in life so for these and other reasons, PAM will have to consider refreshing and rebranding if it is to recapture the enormous amount of ground which it has lost by its own doing and by the doings of Timothy Harris,” Astaphan said.
He added: “This task will require a new leader and new candidates. It is true that the establishment side of PAM has its eyes on their choice of leader but I don’t think that is a realistic choice. That person has proven himself not to be a good politician, leader and not to have the stuff that it takes to be a good leader so they have to go and find somebody else and rebuild their party.”
PAM, who had been in opposition from 1995 to 2015, assumed office following the National Assembly Elections of 2015 with four seats and again in 2020 as a member of the Team Unity Administration. Deputy Chairman of PAM Mr. Azard Gumbs, speaking with local media on Tuesday, said PAM’s defeat is not the end of the party and that they will be working to rebuild and restructure.
WINN FM tried reaching former Deputy Prime Minister Richards for comment but was unsuccessful.
