Asot Says He's Sorry

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Politics

Thursday, 07 March 2013 02:30

By Everton Barnes

Antigua St. John's - Parliamentary Representative for St Peter Asot Michael has offered an apology to his constituents for neglecting them for several years and not paying enough attention to the concerns of the constituency.

Addressing an Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ALP) townhall meeting in Parham on Tuesday night, Michael not only said he was sorry, but laid the blame squarely at the feet of the United Progressive Party (UPP) government for preventing him for performing his duties effectively as a parliamentary representative.

“Since 2004, or for the past nine years, the UPP has hounded several ALP politicians, especially me,” he said. “The UPP government has sued us, using government resources. They caused us to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend ourselves against frivolous Lawsuits. Their lawsuits all proved unfounded, frivolous and lacking in evidence, they were very expensive to defend and time consuming. I should have been in the constituency more often. I humbly apologise.”

Michael gave a commitment to redouble his efforts in the constituency in the coming months.

New Party Political Leader Gaston Browne noted that the economy had recorded over 26 percent of accumulated decline over the past five years, and this has negatively impacted just about every household in the country.

“We are all getting poorer as a result, and this has led to a worsening in the quality of life experienced by ordinary men and women in the society,” he said.

The meeting had all the trapping of a major political event - supporters bussed in, the support of most of the elected members and caretakers, and a charged atmosphere. The townhall meeting was held at the Parham Primary School.

While it was not promoted as such, this could possibly mark the start of perhaps a year-long campaign by the opposition party.

After addresses by several speakers, many of whom exceeded their allotted 10 minutes, the question and answer segment was reduced to half an hour.

A constituent raised the issue of unity within the ABLP, and said too many people were suffering while the party leaders tore at one another.

But Browne said while there was a lot of bitterness after the November 25 convention, where he emerged winner, there has been a closing of ranks in recent times, evidenced by the sharp decline in the number of negative calls to the radio station about this issue.

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