( Real News Antigua) Harold Lovell is challenging Prime Minister Gaston Browne to
substantiate – with facts and figures – his claim to be Antigua and
Barbuda’s best-performing leader since Independence.
Browne made the declaration last Friday, October 6, during what
has been described as a “rant” while campaigning in Bolans.
Lovell says he has never witnessed anything like Browne’s tirade, by
any other leader within the Caribbean, and believes that Browne is
dealing with some personal issues.
However he is challenging the prime minister to show what he has
actually done, apart from announcing projects that have not
materialized.
He notes that the Browne Administration has announced over 30
projects that have not gotten off the ground and that one of its
biggest boasts, the YIDA Development – has flopped.
Lovell points to the more than half-dozen hotel projects undertaken
and completed during his own tenure as tourism minister, as well
as the construction of more than 40 small, locally owned hotels.
According to Lovell, the lone hotel development generated by the
Browne Administration – the PLH Project on Barbuda – cannot
compare to what the United Progressive Party (UPP) achieved while
in office.
He notes that, under Browne, no headway has been made in
manufacturing. And within the agriculture sector, all the prime
minister has achieved is the destruction of the Cades Bay Pineapple
Farm.