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Min. Claris Charles |
Tuesday April 01, 2008, St. George’s:
“The New National Party (NNP) is the
custodian of fairplay and has never been
engaged in any attempt to manipulate the
course of legislated functions at the
Parliamentary Elections Office.” This is
contained in a statement from the New
National Party responding to NDC claims
that it is attempting to rig the next
General Elections.
The New
National Party noted that the
pronouncements by NDC Deputy Political
Leader, George Prime on the
organization’s radio programme on WEEFM
on Sunday 30th March, 2008, are totally
unfounded, erroneous, irresponsible and
directed to create mass confusion and a
lack of public confidence in the
electoral system.
Over the
past months, the NDC has been
campaigning around the country attacking
the Parliamentary Elections Office
claiming that it is working in favour of
the NNP, an accusation that is far from
the truth.
NNP General
Secretary, Hon. Claris Charles refutes
all these allegations noting that the
NDC’s utterances are acts of a political
organization desperate to gather public
sympathy on its side by maligning the
NNP to such an extent as to say that it
is interfering in the Parliamentary
elections process.
She is
disappointed that Senator Prime would
assist his organization in knowingly
repeating allegations that he should
know are untrue.
She hinted
that the NDC is continuing to find that
the NNP is no walkover and the people of
Grenada are beginning to understand
where and how the NDC’s plans at
mischief are being hatched, in view of
its consistent pattern of operation.
“The NDC
doesn’t like and is not accustomed to
fairplay because in fairplay there are
rules. They have been attacking the
electoral system over the past months
and as we know this has been a long term
strategy of theirs to make it appear as
if NNP is cheating against them. Like
they did after October 19, 1983, they
are now campaigning all over the place
to gain public sympathy hoping to get
people to give them a chance to
misgovern the country,” noted the NNP
General Secretary.
“If you
look at this pattern you will notice one
thing, that it is the work of trained
propagandists in the pursuit of one
objective and that is to gain power,
even if it is at the detriment and
destruction of a Nation. That is the
length to which the NDC will go.”
Minister
Claris Charles, in charge of the
country’s portfolio of Education, Labour
and Legal Affairs, categorically stated
that NNP has nothing to do with the
electoral process and the NDC seems to
be the ones who are being prevented from
interfering and therefore crying wolf.
She further
outlined that NNP is doing its political
work within the ambit of the laws,
regulations and guidelines and that is
what the NNP stands for.
“When we
scrutinize the voters’ list and we see
discrepanicies and in our observation,
maybe irregularities, we bring it to the
attention of the Parliamentary Elections
Office, as it is allowed by law. There
are procedures to follow, especially in
the case where there are objections. We
do not bring these to the attention of
the public.” said Claris Charles.
Minister
Charles said the Electoral Office has
its work to do and in the course of that
function, if political organizations
have claims and objections as it relates
the voters list, the law provides that
the political organizations and persons
can draw them to the attention of the
Electoral Office so that they can be
rectified.
She is of
the view that to do otherwise is
defeating the purpose for which the
system was set up in the administration
of the electoral process, good
governance and democracy.
She went on
to say that the NNP has raised
objections likewise about certain
problems especially with the voters’
list where it was found that several of
its supporters were disenfranchised.
Mrs.
Charles further stated that it was
brought to the attention of the
Parliamentary Office that there were
allegations that certain members of the
NDC were encouraging persons to register
in other Constituencies thereby padding
their support from one area they believe
they have strength to areas where they
believe they are weak to help bolster
the vote.
“These were
pointed out and we have been
scrutinizing the voters’ list likewise
to ensure that all is well and when
there are objections we refer them to
the Parliamentary Elections Office, as
the law allows. In view of all that, the
NNP has never gone public to accuse the
NDC of voter padding to create political
tribalism or engineer mass disturbance
as the NDC appears to be doing now.
Their statements will only serve to
disturb the minds of the electorate to
salvage political advantage. NNP is a
disciplined organization and goes
according to the rules. We are not into
the habit of beating up the umpire,
referee or the police,” said Mrs.
Charles.
According
to her it is rather funny that the NDC
is complaining about problems at the
electoral Office and when the Government
is successful in getting the OAS
officials to come here to rectify the
situation, they still keep on
complaining, still showing that they
don’t even have faith in the OAS, which
is an independent body.
“We know
the plan and one could see it unfolding
here. They would have hoped to be in a
position to continue their attacks on
the NNP to see how people respond to
their accusations and how much support
they could get in the interim but to my
mind this is being politically slimy or
obviously futile.”
The OAS
Officials are to arrive in Grenada
during the first week of April, a move
solicited by Prime Minister Dr. the Rt.
Hon. Keith Mitchell, from the onset.
The NNP
General Secretary indicated that there
is a clear indication that while NDC
executives have been blowing their
trumpet all along they are beginning to
realize that the support the NNP has
going for it into the next general
election is that it is the party of
change and thus the right choice.
The entire
NNP executive is totally against the NDC
plan of creating confusion in the minds
of the electorate and destabilizing the
country…an action that is definitely not
good for our democracy and for our
development.
Mrs.
Charles has confirmed that the NNP will
continue to do all that is necessary to
ensure that the country’s democracy
remains strong and that peace and
stability continue and like all other
elections the NNP will remain the
custodians of fairplay. |
