P.U.P. National Executive Meets – 10 Missing

Francis Fonseca

The People’s United Party today held a National Executive meeting this afternoon to deal with a revolt in the ranks. Twelve standard bearers including John Briceño, Dan Silva and Cordel Hyde have written in to officially express their concerns with the direction of the party and to request a National Convention, ASAP.  Unofficially, that translates to a vote of no-confidence in the leadership of Francis Fonseca, so it is serious business. Today ten of those standard bearers were a no-show, part of a planned boycott – which means that the so-called G-twelve is now G-ten. After three hours, the media was called into an impromptu briefing where Fonseca spoke about the letter which he says he received on Monday, and also the direction the P.U.P. has taken in response to the concerns expressed in the letter – a national convention with some urgency, the restructuring of the national executive and the rollout of the party’s policy through consultations.

Francis Fonseca, P.U.P. Leader

“At two p.m. today, we convened our meeting and as the chairman has reported to you, we had twenty-one standard bearers present and we had all members of the national executive—well those with the exception of those standard bearers who are also members of the executive. So we had out of an executive of forty-three members, we had thirty-three members present. I believe it is thirty-four, about seventy-eight percent of the executive present today. The letter from our colleagues was tabled as a priority issue and following a frank honest and robust discussion, the following decisions were taken. One, a national convention which we had agreed to from our last joint meeting of standard bearers and our national executive on March eighteenth; we reaffirmed and confirmed that decision which was taken on March eighteenth at which we had twenty-eight of our standard bearers present and every single one of them signed off on that agreement and resolution for the holding of a national convention at the earliest, no later than the end of this year and that the post of party leader would not be open to challenge at that national convention. So that was the first resolution confirmed and passed today. Second, all proposals, recommendations for a restructuring of the national executive will be fully discussed and reviewed by the party. First at a meeting of all thirty-one standard bearers as has been requested and then following that meeting, we will then table those recommendations and suggestions and proposals to a full meeting of the national executive of the party. And anything that we agree upon will be implemented at the upcoming national convention—any restructuring of the executive. And third, the nationwide consultations on policy issues are ongoing; they have been ongoing since we launch the social justice agenda, since we launched the women’s agenda and the education agenda.”