The Anguilla Government’s town hall meeting with Anguillians in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, on Saturday night, October 20, has been described as a successful event.
The delegation was led by Chief Minister, Mr. Victor Banks. Those who accompanied him were the Minister of Health and Social Development, Mr. McNiel Rogers; the Minister of Home Affairs, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge; the Minister of Infrastructure, Mr. Curtis Richardson; his Ministerial Assistant, Mr. Othlyn Vanterpool; the Parliamentary Secretary, Tourism, Sports and Youth Affairs, Mr. Cardigan Connor; and Mr. Mark Romney, Ministerial Assistant, Communications and Public Relations.
Speaking about the event at the Government’s press conference on Tuesday, October 23, Chief Minister Banks commented: “We have just come back from a very successful visit to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, where we had a town hall meeting. It had absolutely nothing to do with elections,” he pointed out. “The elections are due by April 28 – I think it is – 2020 given the fact that’s when the parliament first met for the appointment of the elected members from the election of April 22, 2015. We therefore have up to that time, but also there is an additional two month period which can be added to that – so elections will be no earlier than April 28, 2020 and no later than June 28, 2020.
“I just want to make that statement because it seems as if there is a feeling of elections in the air. There is no intention by this Government, which has been given a five-year mandate to deliver on our programmes, [to hold the elections earlier]. We are now four to five months over the third year of the last elections and we are proceeding with our projects. We have had a number of setbacks – not the least among which was Hurricane Irma. But, at the end of the day, we think that we are on track to deliver a very large percentage of what we promised.”
Mr. Banks said the visit to St. Thomas was merely to bring the Anguillians up to date with events back home. He expressed thanks to all the Anguillian nationals who attended the meeting and promised to continue to keep in touch with them.
The ministerial team spoke with the Anguillian nationals on a wide range of subject areas and answered various questions. The discussions included Constitutional and Electoral Reform, Immigration, Labour and Education – the rebuilding of schools following Hurricane Irma; Health and Social Development; infrastructural development including air and sea port projects, roads and other planned improvements to the infrastructure; fiscal and economic matters including tourism; the banking sector; and residency by investment – the newest initiative being undertaken by the Government of Anguilla to boost the island’s economy.
