One Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) member has denied claims that discussions are in fact underway to remove the All Saints West Parliamentary Representative Michael Browne from the party’s slate.
Lionel ‘Max’ Hurst, a former ABLP candidate and now Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office has sought to squash any notion that Michael Browne would no longer be apart of or be reprimaded in whatever form from or by the ABLP.
Browne first won his seat in 2014 and has retained that post having won in the last election in 2018. The former teacher and journalist has been in the public eye for the past few days as just last Thursday, Browne was arrested and charged with a criminal offence. He is expected to appear in court in March.
That same day, his portfolio- the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology was appointed to his colleague Sports Minister Daryll Matthew.
It is still not clear if Browne resigned or was fired from Cabinet but what can be confirmed according to Hurst is that until a verdict is reached ” he is innocent until proven guilty’ and as such will remain an integral part of the ABLP despite critics indicating that this latest development is a major blow to the credibility of the party itself.
“He is innocent until proven guilty and anyone who is innocent of anything no matter what they are charged with, if they are innocent then there ought not be any punishment inflicted upon them. We are a democratic system and it is to be determined by his constituency but clearly if these charges are dismissed, he would not have done anything , in my view, for him to be thrown off the ticket,” he shared.
Hurst also spoke to the credibility of the ABLP following this incident and another last week involving Hon. Dean Jonas, the Minister of Social Transformation and the Blue Economy who was publicly ridiculed after making comments on the subject matter of consent.
He in fact, even came to the defense of Jonas who had sought to rectify his statements.
“In that statement with Dean Jonas atleast three times he would have said the age of consent is 16 but you know what they did they cut out a little part when he was makign reference to a particular person who has had a child with a woman when she was 14 years old and he was suggesting that it is not at all times that these things are reported and they are not reported for a whole amount of reasons and he was doing his very to explain why these things don’t reach to the public and it is not because of the inability of behalf of the minor to give consent…three times he said was the age was consent was,” he said.
