By Devonne Cornelius
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Political commentator Duncan “Biglice” Wattley is raising questions about allegations of internal fighting within the Cabinet of the St. Kitts Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) administration.
In Wattley’s recent Facebook live, he raised questions about allegations of internal fighting within the SKNLP Cabinet being bandied about. Mr. Wattley said: “I am hearing that all is not well in the Labour camp…I am hearing that there is division in the Labour camp, and in Cabinet. If that is so, that is sad.”
He added: “There are some people who are still carrying a grudge and a lump in their stomach to accept what happened…Dr. Drew is now the leader of the party and the prime minister and it is important for people to respect that because if you don’t, it means that we could end up like how Team Unity ended up.”
But Press Secretary Mrs. Adelcia Connor-Ferlance, in a telephone conversation with WINN FM on Friday (Apr. 21), said, “I am not aware that there is any form of division within the Cabinet. There have been no reports of anything of that sort.”
Infighting in political parties is not new to the Federation, with one of the most recent being the collapse of Team Unity, formerly headed by Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris, which crumbled due to internal fighting ahead of the National Assembly elections in August 2022.
On Nevis, the main opposition – the Nevis Reformation Party – is dealing with an impasse. The party’s leader, Hon. Dr. Janice Daniel-Hodge, has not officially been sworn in as Leader of the Opposition in the Nevis Island Assembly, and that is because the other opposition elected member – Hon. Cleone Stapleton-Simmonds, who was NRP’s deputy leader, opted not to support her for the position.
Disagreements within political parties and administrations are common in democratic institutions but the true measure of democracy is whether administrations could get past those differences for the good of the country.
