Green Party head drops ‘bombshell’

“It is illegal to build the cross country road and the Unity Labour Party knows it!” That was the cry sounded by the SVG Green Party at a press conference on Wednesday, November 23, 2005.

In what he described as “the bombshell,” the leader of the political party said he was informed by one of his “Green Angels” that the ULP was signing the contract for the road that morning, hence the reason he held the conference. {{more}}

He explained that the Electricity Act of number 14 of 1973 specifically prohibited any development above the Colonarie and Richmond rivers and their tributaries which made it illegal to construct the proposed cross-country road.

O’Neal accused the ULP of being very dishonest and explained that shortly after taking office in March 2001 the ULP carried out an internal audit at the electricity company, Vinlec, which resulted in several senior members of staff being fired.

He said the then Minister of Transport, Works and Housing, Julian Francis “must have known” that development above the Richmond and Colonarie rivers and their tributaries was strictly prohibited by law.

The East St.George candidate further stated that the Unity Labour Party was deceitful, misleading and dishonest to publish the proposed construction of the cross country road in their manifesto. He declared that the ULP manifesto was not worth the paper on which it was written.

Answering a question from the media on who Vincentians should vote for in the other 11 constituencies where there were no candidates for the Green Party, O’Neal answered that the electorate must choose the candidate that presented the issues. The leader pointed out that there were other persons who expressed interest in joining the party but backed out after what he described as intimidation and being bought out.

The retired economist, who has a master’s degree in budget planning, pointed out that under the past governments we were big borrowers, spenders and beggars; our national debt increased instead of our wealth.

He proposed ideas like setting up a big water plant so that other countries which do not have rivers could buy water from St.Vincent and the Grenadines. O’Neal noted that water was more expensive than oil and this country needed to capitalise on that natural resource. The former military commander who worked with the richest man in the world, Sultan of Brunei, also heavily criticised the government’s operation of the National Properties Ltd and said for that reason alone he would encourage Vincentians to instead vote the NDP to keep the ULP out of office.

General Secretary, Ordan Graham however noted that while the Green Party would not align itself to any party, they would give support to whoever was voted into office and would refrain from gutter politics. He stressed that he had not “received a red cent from Red China” and elaborated that he was ready to say where the party got its funding from if the other two political parties declared where they got their finance.

The Green Party also presented their 43-page manifesto at the event held at the Scout Headquarters.