By Linda Straker
Special To HBN

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, Tues. Mar. 8, 2005: A leading newspaper columnist in Grenada has called for the supporters of the New National Party to get rid of Prime Minister Keith Mitchell as their leader.

Leslie Pierre in his ‘Personally Speaking’ column in ‘The Grenadian Voice’ newspaper on March 4, called for supporters of the party to jettison Mitchell for refusing to put into operation the advice from those closest to him.

Referring specifically to confrontations between street vendors and police, in which the vendors are claiming that they received permission from the “Big Man” to vend on the streets of St George’s, Pierre said that this is the kind of action that signals the wrong message to subordinate ministers. In recent weeks there has been an increase in police officers on the streets to ensure that vendors operate from the St George’s Market Square.

‘Why did he not instead call in the people responsible for the overall Market Square project and demand that they work night and day if necessary to complete the project, which I believe is running into a year overdue for completion,” Pierre questioned in his column entitled “Time To Jettison The Man On Top.”

Pierre, who is also editor of the paper, said, “When you add all of this to the unnecessary and I think, silly comments made by the Prime Minister about the judgment against ‘The 13,’ I think it is time for someone to do him, at the next convention, what he is alleged to have done to (Herbert) Blaize.” Blaize was the former leader of the party.

Grenada’s Office of the Prime Minister has so far not issued a reaction to the column.

Reprinted from hardbeatnews.com