Brantley leadership bid in limbo?

St Kitts and Nevis (WINN): Nevis elects new political leader – that’s the news making the rounds in some media circles in the federation.
It’s a headline item also in Bardados, in reference to Deputy Premier Mark Brantley’s bid to head the Concerned Citizen’s Movement.
He was nominated for the post, and a CCM caucus was expected to endorse Brandley’s leadership on Sunday.
Reporting on that matter, the Barbados Today says Brantley has been elected the new Leader of the Nevis’ governing CCM.
Brantley’s nomination was ratified at a caucus held by the party on Sunday afternoon and will be formalized at CCM’s convention when he will officially replace Premier Amory, who held the post of CCM’s Party Leader since 1986, Barbados Today tells its television audience.
However that is not being confirmed by the CCM.
WINN FM hasn’t been able to reach Deputy Premiere Brantley, and the outgoing party chairman Steadmon Tross says the CCM is not commenting on the matter at the moment.
“I am saying to you that we will make a statement when the time comes. In a while the party will give an official statement” Tross said.
Elections are due in Nevis next year and Mark Brantley as leader if and when he receives the go ahead, will have to do battle with the leader of the Nevis Reformation Party, Joseph Parry.
We asked NRP’s Parry what sort of rival he expects CCM’s Brantley to be.
“We are quite prepared to take part in the election, we believe we are going to win the election whether it’s Mark Brantley or Vance Amory and we really don’t care who is the leader. Right now I’m not sure whether Mark Brantley is the leader or not because I understand that at the caucus the last thing that was done is that Mr. Amory referred them to the CCM constitution and told them to read section 8 of the constitution. Maybe if we all read it we might find something out that we don’t know, but I can assure you that we are ready for elections, we intend to keep ourselves in readiness for the elections, and we are satisfied that this is our time.”
While the CCM is going about the business of putting its house in order for the coming election, Joseph Parry is making positive noises about an NRP election victory at the polls.
“We first of all, we intend to restore government to Nevis. That is very important. From 1970 up until 1983 the Nevis Reformation Party fought to have its own government for the people of Nevis and we achieved that with independence and that government performed exceedingly well. We brought the Four Seasons here, we established land for everyone on the island, we established free secondary education, we made sure there was a pay day in the country. We developed agriculture, we built communities all around the island, we modernized Nevis in terms of water and electricity etc, all these things we did and we are quite satisfied that our past is there our record is very good for people to see. What we will do is re-establish government in Nevis and we will ensure that we have the type of investment in Nevis that has short term, medium term and long term impact on the island and economy on Nevis. To create jobs for our people that we badly need, create funds for the treasury so that we don’t seem to be like beggars or for people to feel we are beggars. I want us to be in a position that when we meet with the federal government in St Kitts we demand what belongs to us and not have anybody feel that they are doing us a favour. We do not want that, we want to establish the kind of level of maturity and a sophisticated government that can make the people of Nevis proud.”
The current Vance Amory-led CCM Nevis Island Administration boasts of having a great relationship with the federal government in Basseterre, with the island reportedly getting its fair share as an integral part of the federation of St Kitts and Nevis.
Deputy Premier Brantley recently pointed to major projects in Nevis being funded through the SIDF – the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation.
According to the CCM, Nevis hardly benefitted from the SIDF when the federal government was in the hands of the Denzil Douglas-led St Kitts Nevis Labour Party.
Joseph Parry argues however, that the NIA is making good use of the begging bowl to get support for Nevis from the Team Unity administration.
The NRP leader contends too that Nevis is being neglected by Premier Amory and his deputy who also have full time jobs in the federal administration where Premier Amory is a senior government minister, and his Deputy Brantley the federation’s foreign affairs minister.