The youngest and fastest growing political party on the region, the Peoples Labour Party (PLP), held the private session of its National Convention 2021 on Friday March 26 where the entire executive, led by National Political Leader and Prime Minister Dr the Hon Timothy Harris, was elected unopposed.
Held under the theme ‘Together: Empowering and Uniting People; Rebuilding our Economy’, the private session which was held at the Royal St. Kitts Hotel Conference Room saw most of the office holders returned unopposed. Aspirants for positions left vacant by holders – one who left the country and the other who is going for further studies – were nominated and elected unopposed in the exercise that was overseen by Mr Franklin Maitland of the audit firm Maitland Maitland & Associates (MMA).
Retaining positions on the new Peoples Labour Party National Executive were National Political Leader, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris; Deputy National Political Leader, the Hon Akilah Byron-Nisbett; National Chairman, Mr Warren Thompson; and National Secretary, Ms Myrtilla Williams.
New on the executive is National Treasurer Mr Rawle Mars, nominated and elected unopposed to replace Mr Victor Earle who is now one of the three PLP National Trustees, joining Mr Heston Hamm and Mr Donald Caines who have been National Trustees all along.
Also returned are National Women Representatives, Mrs Sonia Henry and Ms Petrona Thomas; and National Party Organiser, Mr Alexis Nisbett. New Deputy National Chairperson is Ms Claudette Thompson, who is not new on the Executive having served as the Deputy National Treasurer on the previous Executive.
New on the PLP National Executive are Deputy National Secretary, Ms Desiree Huggins; Deputy National Treasurer, Mrs Patrice Ofre; National Youth Representatives, Mr Jeremiah Locker and Ms Katherina Davis.
A new position created on the new Executive is that of Communication Officer that went to Mr Craig Tuckett, who is not new to the Executive having served as the Deputy National Chairman on the last Executive. While Mr Anthony Ross QC has previously been associated with the Peoples Labour Party in a legal capacity, he along with Ms Violet Williams took the two National Legal Representative positions.
“This is now our complete team,” announced National Political Leader Dr the Hon Timothy Harris when he introduced the new Executive. “We are here to serve you, to serve the party, the serve the Unity family, and most importantly to serve St. Kitts and Nevis to the best of our ability.”
Dr Harris added: “For completeness I should advise that by the party rules, the Deputy National Speaker Senator Dr Bernicia Nisbett is also automatically, as a result of her parliamentary position, a member of the executive having been appointed as the PLP Senator in the parliament.”
The Peoples Labour Party which was established in 2013 is steadily growing. It won the first seat in the National Assembly in 2015, and the second seat following the 2020 General Elections.
The Honourable National Political Leader while thanking those who have worked hard to bring the party to where it is now, advised that there was room in the PLP for everybody to come, telling the members that “your approach must be welcoming, and every time if somebody new comes welcome them to the party so that we could be bigger and stronger.”
Dr Harris added: “As we convene this convention we have party groups in every constituency – that is a plus. We now have to build it stronger and better because we do not know what the future holds. We can’t take our eyes off the future, we can’t take our eyes off the consolidation of the future; we can’t take our eyes away from building the party stronger and better than it was.”
Due to Covid-19 regulations being observed, the business/private session of the National Convention which would normally hold over 300 persons had the attendance reduced by about 60%. Each constituency branch as a result had 12 delegates as opposed to 35 delegates for previous conventions.
“We have to behave in a manner that shows that we are serious and we are supportive of the government’s programme to defeat Covid-19,” said Dr Harris. “That is why I must express the regret, my own personal regret and that of the executive that the large amount of crowd we normally have at our convention we would not encourage in the face of Covid-19.”
Prime Minister Harris informed the delegates that Covid rules state that for indoor events a function must have no more than 100 persons.
“We have to walk the talk,” he said. “As a party in Government we have said that to fight Covid-19 we must avoid mass gatherings and we as a party in government are committed to that and that is why we have reduced significantly by more than 60 per cent the attendance at our convention which would normally have around 300.”