Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has responded to criticism from the opposition St.Lucia Labour Party on the appointment of Guy Mayers as St.Lucia’s High Commissioner to London. The Prime Minister says Mayers is the best person to serve in that position given his wealth of experience and knowledge.
He said Mayers experience as a former president of the Saint Lucia Chamber of Commerce and a former minister for trade and commerce, as well as minister of national security, also gives him a great advantage to serve well.
However, the opposition Saint Lucia Labour Party (SLP) has said that Mayers nomination contradicts the ruling United Workers Party manifesto which states that it will end “political patronage in the foreign service” and not using “the foreign service as a channel for distributing political favors.”
But the prime minister said Mayers was placed in the wrong category just because he is “politically involved.” “A political hack to me is the person like who the Labour Party appointed as the ambassador in Washing D.C. A person who is the wife of the general secretary of the party with no credentials to be in that position,” Chastanet said.
Adding that when Dr. Ernest Hilaire was a diplomat he had no problem with that but when he was made the chairman of the Citizenship by Investment Programme , while planning to contest a seat at the election and was also involved in the appointment of Dr. Walid Juffali, he did speak out about it.
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