District Six incumbent Alvera Maduro-Caines Denies plagiarising campaign launch speech

Sixth Electoral District incumbent Alvera Maduro-Caines has denied plagiarising portions of her speech given at her May 26 official campaign launch at the Omar Hodge Fisherman’s Wharf and Park in Tortola.

The Virgin Islands Party (VIP) candidate said her speech, which focused on developmental plans for the District over the next four years, was decided during a January meeting.

“I presented a speech where I chose to focus on my plans for the next four years, when re-elected as the representative for District Six. Before giving my speech last night, I released a list of projects completed in the district knowing that I would focus on our way forward and not use the best part of the evening to revisit the many roads that I’ve worked on, public facilities that I’ve worked to salvage and restore, and the number of social ills that I address daily. In a planning meeting held in January, I began to outline the plans that I had for the district with my executive committee who assembled at my home. I jokingly termed the plans, “things that are Alvera-chievable,” she explained in a statement issued to the media on March 27.

Accusations of plagiarisation came from her toughest opponent to date, National Democratic Party (NDP) candidate Myron Walwyn.

Maduro-Caines won the Sixth Electoral District in 2019 flying the NDP banner. Walwyn, the then NDP chairman, ran as a Territorial at-large candidate and lost.

The VIP won eight of the 13 seats in the House of Assembly, while NDP secured only three seats, including the Sixth Electoral District. Maduro-Caines later crossed the floor and joined the VIP.

She stressed that the plans outlined during her campaign address were “developed based on two things: conversations that I’ve had with many residents of the district and an analysis of plans I’ve been working on but had yet to be completed. I was determined to only include items that I know could be achieved in four years. The landscape of our district continues to change, yet there are some things that we all know we want collectively to happen in District Six. That’s how a good plan comes together.”

She admitted that the “ideas are not entirely new. A beautification and cleaning project is a continuous part of my district plan, and you can imagine that after the hurricanes of 2017, we have even more work to do as debris and derelict vehicles continue to appear. Especially when lands are being cut and pruned, it exposes even more rubbish. It’s a problem that the entire country faces.  As it pertains to a monitoring programme for students to ensure the graduation rate increases, that is my purest response through love.”

Regarding the provision of extra classes for students in her District, Maduro-Caines explained “earlier this year about eight students found themselves on the harsh side of the EPE which they must complete to graduate. It’s a haphazard examination and programme instituted by the former Minister of Education, that has had many disastrous results for many of our students. To assist those students from our district to complete that requirement, I created a programme where I helped to monitor them for the three weeks of re-testing. I provided food and extra classes for those students three days per week, and all of those students passed. That’s where the plan for that programme came from.”

Maduro-Caines also accused Walwyn of ignoring her proposal for a Youth Empowerment Programme for her District while he was NDP  chairman Walwyn.

“Mr. Walwyn and I worked together, I presented the Youth Empowerment Programme to him on the same day that I went to meet with key stakeholders. He acted like he was supportive, but later showed no interest. A form of that idea now appears on his list. When I presented him the idea to cover the basketball court in Purcell, I was met with no support. The very business that sits on the basketball court now, was met with the hardest opposition to get approval from the then minister, who insulted the young people who were trying to make an honest dollar and needed a recreational space. The covering of the bleachers, part of the same idea, was rushed a few weeks ago. Though my idea was a complete covering like that of the Jeffery Caines arena in Virgin Gorda.”

The race for the Sixth Electoral District is between Maduro-Caines and Walwyn.

Residents will decide who will be their District Representative for the next four years on April 24.