By Robert Andre Emmanuel
The former Political Leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Harold Lovell, has rejected calls by party supporters to run as a candidate for the All Saints West constituency.
Following the resignation of All Saints MP Anthony Smith Jr as a member of the UPP to become an independent MP, the opposition party has been looking for someone to fill the role as a caretaker for the area, as the party pursues legal action over the meaning of the word ‘independent’ in the Constitution.
“I appreciate the sentiments that have been expressed and the confidence that persons seem prepared to place in me,” Lovell said on Observer AM yesterday.
“I felt as though I had a duty to at least give this thing some very serious thought. Having already made certain declarations and having thought about it, I am of the view that my role is really to support whomever the party selects for that constituency,” he said.
Lovell resigned from electoral politics in January 2023 immediately after the general election where he narrowly lost his bid to retake the St John’s City East seat by six votes.
Speaking on Observer AM yesterday about his new role as a visiting professor at the University of Toronto and other political issues, he said that he felt that his current role as a mentor for younger candidates better helps the party.
“I’m not walking away, but I feel that my earlier statements should stand, and notwithstanding the fact that I appreciate the overwhelming call that has been made, I believe that my time right now would be better served as someone who is supporting rather than being actually out there,” he said.
Despite this, members of the public called in to the show to ask Lovell to reconsider his decision to not run in the constituency, with one caller claiming that the country “did a disservice to him”.
Meanwhile, Lovell has agreed with the response of former Attorney General under the UPP administration, Justin Simon KC, to Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s comments regarding bail and the judiciary.
Last week, following shootings and other crimes committed during Carnival, PM Browne declared that the judiciary was failing the country in how the courts apply bail and sentencing guidelines for what he calls “unempathetic, destructive, criminal elements”, enabling them to become repeat offenders.
The bail system is designed to protect the rights of the defendant, while considering victims and the public.
As the explanatory memorandum in Antigua and Barbuda’s 2019 Bail Act states: “The victims and witnesses have a right not to feel threatened and the accused also is entitled to be presumed innocent unless he or she has been found guilty in a court of law.”
Meanwhile, the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, which oversees judges in the OECS, has developed sentencing guidelines to provide more consistency and transparency in the judgements meted out by judges to defendants with various factors increasing or reducing a convict’s sentence.
Judges are required to follow those rules, unless doing so would not be in the public interest in which case the reasoning must be explained by the judge in writing.
Some Caribbean leaders such as St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves have also criticised the judiciary for its alleged leniency as regional governments seek to clamp down on a growing problem of shootings and armed robberies.
Last year, at a regional conference centred around gun violence in the Caribbean held in Trinidad, PM Gonsalves questioned the need for persons who are alleged to have committed murder to be granted bail.
Yesterday, Lovell stated, “I am very disappointed that the Prime Minister [Browne] would try to throw the judiciary under the bus … judges, they are required to follow sentencing guidelines; it’s not a case where you just jump up and sentence someone arbitrarily. There are certain guidelines based on certain factors that the judges will follow.”
He added that the influx of guns into the country—many of which are manufactured in places like the United States—should be the concern of the government, and called for special programmes and initiatives to be put in place to address the issue.
