PAM Leader – Mr. Lindsay Grant
More Calls For PAM Leader To Step Down
Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
February 09, 2010 (CUOPM)
Following his second consecutive defeat at the polls, there are mounting calls for the Mr. Lindsay Grant to resign from the leadership of the opposition People’s Action Movement (PAM).
In an ongoing opinion poll on SKNVIBES, 68 percent of persons want Mr. Grant to step down, while 33 percent wants him to remain as Leader of PAM.
Of the 1053 persons voting, 711 want Mr. Grant to give up the leadership, while 342 want him to stay.
Mr. Grant, who was handpicked to lead PAM in 2000 after its 8-0 whipping by the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, under the leadership of Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas, was defeated in St. Christopher 4 (Challengers to New Guinea) by the Hon. Rupert Herbert, the Labour Party’s oldest candidate in the October 25 2004 General Election. The St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party trounced PAM 6 to 2.
Prior to the January 25th 2010 poll, Mr. Grant thwarted two attempts by the Constituency Boundaries Commission to realign the boundaries following a recommendation by the Commonwealth Mission. He was defeated for the second consecutive time and lost to Labour’s rookie candidate, Hon. Glen Phillip, the new Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports, Information Technology and Post. PAM failed to win a majority of the seats in St. Kitts and in the National Assembly getting just two of the eight seats on St. Kitts.
As the results were announced on Election Night, there were calls during the analysis by several persons including Mr. Douglas Wattley and renowned Caribbean pollster, Mr. Peter Wickham, for Mr. Grant to give up the leadership of PAM.
Wickham, who correctly predicted that the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party will win the January 25th poll, said PAM must address the issues of leadership and popularity in light of its fourth successive general election defeat.
“I think it’s the end of the line for him,” Mr. Wickham said in a televised interview with the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). Similar statements were made by Mr. Wickham as well as other local panelists on WINN FM’s coverage of the 2010 poll.
“I certainly do feel that it is a major embarrassment for him. He led a party for five years even though he was not the one who was elected (to Parliament),” said Wickham.
“He has now lost again and I believe it will be difficult for him to defend his right to continue as leader in the face of the fact that he has been unable to secure a seat,” the political scientist and pollster told CMC.
PAM then has to look for an alternative leader and my feeling is that they should not constrain themselves by believing that they have to elect someone who is within the party or within the Parliament.
He also said PAM had a false sense of security in the run up to the election, which was delayed due to legal challenges mounted by the opposition party seeking to prevent the government’s drive to shift constituency boundaries as part of its electoral reform efforts.