P.U.P. Leadership Debate Called Off

With less than seventy-two hours before what would have been the first leadership debate in the history of the People’s United Party, organizers of the event have not surprisingly suspended the political event.  Candidates Francis Fonseca, John Briceño and Cordel Hyde were not given a deadline by which to confirm their participation.  However, the planning committee has decided to call off the event because Briceño and Hyde were facing scheduling difficulties. From the get-go, there were reservations about the possibilities of actually having an open discussion to address internal matters within the P.U.P., as well as national issues in general. But timing was a major problem because the convention is just days away and preparation would have taken up significant time away from the campaign trail. According to organizer Glenn Tillett, this would have presented an opportunity for the aspiring leaders to take advantage of the platform being afforded to them.

Glenn Tillett, Debate Organizer

“The committee decided late yesterday when there was a non-response from two of the candidates, a formal no response as to their participation to cease the effort to have the debate.  This came about as a result of the fact that we were simply running out of time.  Even though it’s not a large event there were several logistical and infrastructural things that we had to take care of in terms of traffic, security, audience, venue et cetera and we felt that it was, it had created a crunch that we would rather not deal with.”

Glenn Tillett

Isani Cayetano

“Now this, by some measure, may be a disappointment to others who were looking forward to have real issues discussed on a particular platform and seeing as though two of the three candidates could not confirm their attendance, is this a disappointment for you as the organizer?”

Glenn Tillett

“I am very disappointed.  I am not going to speculate as to their reasons but I am very disappointed because we were doing this for the most altruistic and virtuous of motives.  We believe that one of these gentlemen there’s very much the possibility of him being the next leader of our nation and we thought that the citizens of this nation would have benefited greatly by hearing their positions on several national issues.”

Isani Cayetano

“Now what’s to happen next, it seems as though the debate is off the table altogether.  Is there anything else in the pipeline in terms of either hearing from these individuals collectively as a trio or maybe organizing something else?”

Glenn Tillett

“We are asking the Honorable Francis Fonseca if he is of the mind to look at the questions that have been submitted and perhaps provide public answers to those but we will be making the questions that we had solicited and gathered, when we finish collating them we will be making them available to the media so that anybody can ask these candidates these questions if they happen to run into them.”