The U.D.P. Race in Caribbean Shores, 6 Weeks to go!
A heated political race within the United Democratic Party to select a standard bearer for Caribbean Shores is underway, as three candidates have since signed up to contest an upcoming convention in June. Senate President Lee Mark Chang, former Area Representative Santiago Castillo Junior and former City Councilor Leila Peyrefitte are offering themselves to represent the U.D.P. in that electoral division in the 2020 general elections. Erstwhile Mayor Darrell Bradley, who was defeated in that constituency back in 2015 when he ran against P.U.P. candidate Kareem Musa, will not be running for office since little work was done in the area following his defeat. But is the six-week timeline too hasty for a U.D.P. convention in Caribbean Shores? Here’s how PM Barrow responded to that question.
Dean Barrow
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“This was the decision come to by the entire National Party Council. You had over a hundred persons there and the feeling just was, look, let’s get this done and dusted as soon as possible. And Lee Mark Chang who was there as part of the National Party Council didn’t object, so I believes he thinks clearly, the members present also thought that this is enough time for anybody who works hard to have as good a shot as everybody else. Not contentious at all, the question of the…
Reporter
“And the newly endorsed standard bearer, I know you met with him. I am told it’s a thorny encounter, [that] he doesn’t agree to step aside and he shouldn’t be forced to step aside.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“It was not a thorny encounter, I was surprised afterwards when I got reports from people saying that Darrell was going to go to the media and complain, because I thought it was extremely courteous on both sides and both of us were reasonable. I had explained to Darrell, we had had a meeting arranged from before the central executive of the party met on Wednesday. I had already set the meeting with him, but I was able to say to him since we fixed the meeting that there had been this development where the central executive met on Wednesday and the central executive wishes to recommend to the National Party Council which I told him was for the following day, as he knew, that we reopen applications and we have now a convention. The central thought that since the constitution requires a convention before somebody can become a candidate, while Darrell had been the only person to put in his name when we opened the lists at that time, and therefore we took it as natural that he would move on to candidacy, there was not the endorsement convention that the constitution requires held after. Darrell was by default the obvious candidate in waiting but the position wasn’t solidified. It might seem like some sort of a technicality but the truth is that we seized on that because we really did not think that the kind of activity that ought to have been happening in Caribbean Shores has been happening and Darrell was very gracious.”
