Former Saint Lucia Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny Anthony, has accused his successor, Allen Chastanet, of disrespecting the electorate by delaying elections in order to buy time.
But Anthony, who is the MP for Vieux Fort South, expressed the view that Chastanet had infuriated the people by his actions.
“The Prime Minister of Saint Lucia is a bizarre individual,” he told The Morning Star Host, Winston Springer on Tuesday.
According to Anthony, one can never predict Chastanet’s actions or decisions or the rationale for them, since he is an unconventional politician with no regard for conventions or laws, except where the laws benefit him.
Nevertheless, the Vieux Fort South MP expressed the opinion that there were a number of reasons why the PM delayed the elections and on Monday night announced that Saint Lucia will go to the polls on July 26.
Anthony stated that the ruling United Workers Party (UWP) understood that it had lost ground.
As a result, he said he believes that Chastanet needed to buy time.
“He wanted to get a lot of money on the ground to try to persuade those voters who were undecided or previous voters who had voted for them, so he needed to buy as much time as possible, not withstanding the fact that he was infuriating the public,” Anthony asserted.
“There is also the feeling that they might have been able to alter the mood in specific constituencies and to do that they needed time. Obviously, that will not come to pass but basically I think they played with the electorate,” the former PM declared.
Anthony said there is what he described as ‘a very deep issue’ where Chastanet is concerned.
He said it is the issue of disrespect for the electorate.
“Elections are very very sacred and in my experience, a Prime Minister who keeps on delaying an election is an indication that this is a Prime Minister who is afraid of the electorate, who is worried about the electorate who does not trust the judgement of the electorate and I think all those factors are at play,” Anthony said.
“He had little choice. The truth of the matter is that he had run out of time. Once the anniversary date of the previous election reached, then you had already run out of options and you only had the 90 days to play with. But I think what hastened the decision was the internal pressure which he got from his own candidates and of course from his campaigners and secondly, he understood that the country is facing a major crisis,” he expressed.
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