ONE-MINUTE READS … News from around the region

ST KITTS

Opposition calls for general election date to be announced

The main opposition St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) says it will mobilise supporters to force Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris to call general elections in the twin island federation after indicating that it has been five years since voters elected the Team Unity administration into office.

“We cannot take one day more of this Government. The young people are saying they cannot wait for Labour to return to office so that they can find jobs,” SKNLP leader Dr Denzil Douglas told a public meeting here on Sunday night. “Its time is up. Tonight, on the 16th day of February 2020 – the fifth anniversary of the last elections, we shall mobilise from tonight and make sure that our people understand, the Caribbean region understands, the world understands that the Harris Government has expired.”

The next general election is constitutionally due by August 12, 2020.

TRINIDAD

Trinidadians urged to be vaccinated against the flu

Health authorities have renewed calls for people to be vaccinated against the flu as they reported that 40 people have died so far during the 2020 flu season.

The Ministry of Health said that it is continuing with its “robust nationwide influenza vaccine drive,” and that as of last Friday, the cumulative number of vaccines administered to the public, stood at 93,119.

But it said the numThe Ministry said that to date 40 people had died as a result of the flu and warned “that the influenza virus is generally more severe than the common cold”.

The number of suspected influenza cases for the 2020 calendar year had reached 224 and that noting that the number of suspected cases in 2019 was 3,854.

DOMINICA

Search for bodies after plane crash

Rescue teams have found wreckage of the single engine aircraft that crashed into the sea on leaving the Douglas Charles Airport, on Sunday night, but have so far been unsuccessful in locating the bodies of any of the four people who were on board the ill-fated flight.

The CEO of the Dominica Air and Sea Ports Authority, Benoit Bardouille, speaking on the state-owned DBS radio, said a bag and a passport had been found and that rescue teams had intensified their search in the waters in Marigot.

“Four souls are on that aircraft. What we are doing earnestly is to try to see how we can find the aircraft and the four souls that were on board. We are hopeful that’s of something … since the aircraft may not have gone too far away from the airport,” he said.

ST VINCENT

PM supports diplomat in vehicle controversy

St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, has defended the island’s Counsel General in Toronto, Fitz Huggins, who is threatening to take legal action against a Toronto-based Vincent businessman over allegations made on social media regarding the purchase of a vehicle.

“I just want to say one thing, … the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and Grenadines and the Government, that we have full confidence in the integrity of Consul General Huggins, he’s a man of good standing. He’s doing an excellent job,” Gonsalves said on a local radio station here.

Last week, Huggins, speaking on a radio programme here, said that the businessman, Marlon Bute, had made unfounded statements regarding the purchase of the vehicle and that he would be in discussions with his lawyers on the way forward.

BELIZE

Prime Minister brushes aside opposition Leader

Prime Minister Dean Barrow has brushed aside a call by the main opposition People’s United Party (PUP) for a Commission of Inquiry after the High Court ruled earlier this month that more than BDZ$1.5 billion (One Belize dollar=US$0.49 cents) had been illegally spent with respect to the PetroCaribe funds.

In a four-page letter sent to barrow last Friday, PUP Leader John Briceño, noted that the Chief Justice found that Barrow, who is also the minister of finance, was in breach of the Finance and Audit Reform of Act when he did not get the required parliamentary approval for the expenditure of the funds.

The court also ordered a constitutional amendment to correct the matter. The Government would require the support of the opposition in amending the Constitution since a special majority to do so.