Faber Chides U.D.P. Chairman in a Letter Explaining His Pending Departure
Patrick Faber
Former Opposition Leader Patrick Faber was a no-show at today’s house meeting, the first parliamentary session since the beginning of the New Year. His absence was somewhat expected given the extreme turn of events in the past three weeks that resulted in his scheduled departure as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the United Democratic Party. In the wake of the latest domestic violence scandal involving the Collet Area Representative, swift action has been taken by his colleagues on the opposition bench to replace him as L.O.O. That decision was succeeded by a vote of no confidence. But, Faber is yet to formally demit office by tendering his letters of resignation. Earlier today, he wrote to U.D.P. Chairman Mike Peyrefitte outlining several concerns with measures that the party has since taken. Faber says, “the actions of three of my fellow U.D.P. parliamentarians sending a letter of no confidence to the Governor General before I had been given the chance to pen and deliver such a letter to the Governor General indicated unsettling over eagerness on the part of those members”. Elsewhere in the letter, Faber went on to say that the move to recommend a new Leader of the Opposition flew in the face of the party’s constitution, a point that has also been made by Albert Area Representative Tracy Panton. To that he says that many of the party faithful, including himself, “are uneasy at the length that some are going to wrestle power in this party”. Faber even went on to chide the chairman for calling meetings without consulting him as leader of the party and says that Peyrefitte contravened the U.D.P. constitution by criticizing the leadership openly instead of doing so internally. Again, Faber says, “I maintain the position of not wishing to burden the party with my personal issues which make my departure imminent, but I will not and cannot sit by and watch the democracy of the party be devoured by power hungry vultures. We understand that the executive of the U.D.P. is meeting on Saturday to determine a way forward.
