P.U.P. Race for Leadership Gets Ugly on Facebook

In twenty-three days, the People’s United Party will have a new leader or a new old leader, as the case may be. Two of the men vying for the position, John Briceño and Francis Fonseca, have been leaders of the P.U.P. – Briceño from 2008 to 2011, and Fonseca from that point until he stepped down, sort of, on November fifth, one day after general elections. The third candidate is Cordel Hyde, who left the Party but returned to claim a monumental victory in Lake Independence. The three candidates have been travelling the country, meeting with delegates in full scale campaign mode with the requisite hand-shaking and back patting. That’s one aspect of the run-up to the Convention. But there is the seedy underbelly of the beast, in plain view in social media. Supporters have been fully engaged in launching attacks and that has resulted in fireworks, name-calling and personal lives on full display on Facebook.  It makes for interesting reading and no end of amusement, but not so much for the unity which has been the P.U.P.’s nemesis since 2008. It’s too early to speculate about front-runners, but we understand an agenda for that meeting has not been widely circulated, and it is believed that there will be a discussion of Convention rules, as well as presentations by all three candidates for the position of leader.