Ian Jones to be Endorsed as U.D.P. Candidate for Collet

It’s official, Patrick Faber is no longer running for the United Democratic Party in Collet, after five terms of representing that constituency in parliament. A letter written to the former party leader today by the Nominations Committee, informed him that notwithstanding his effort to finally comply with the directive of the National Party Council, several weeks have passed since the denial of his application.  As a result, the committee proceeded with the vetting of candidates.  Tonight, we take a deeper look at what’s happening in Collet, where Ian Jones has been officially accepted as the U.D.P.’s candidate of choice heading into the next general elections. On October twenty-first, the former Sports Director was written to by the chair of the Nomination Committee informing him that his application had been met with a positive response. Since no one else applied for the post of standard bearer and current Area Representative Patrick Faber’s application had been rejected, Jones will be endorsed as the next candidate.  News Five spoke with Jones earlier today to get his reaction.

Ian Jones

Ian Jones, U.D.P. Candidate, Collet

“On Friday morning, I received an email from the chairperson, the chairlady of the Nominations Committee, you have seen the letter, it basically confirms that my application was accepted and being that I was the only candidate whose application was accepted then there’d be no convention, per se, it would be more of an endorsement at a further date which the secretariat would inform me of.I did hear the party leader state it in an interview that Honorable Faber could appeal his decision in the event that he would abide by the NPC’s directive.  I also stated publicly that if that were to happen and he did abide by the directive which was set at an NPC meeting in August, and that if the nominations committee and the party reversed that decision on him after he appealed, then by all means I would have stood down for two reasons: one, at the central executive level which I am a member of, we had, there was a proposal made by the Honorable Tracy Panton that current, sitting, elected members basically would not have to go to convention and would be endorsed.  I was one of the first persons who voted in agreement of that. The other deadline which again was set at an NPC for persons interested in applying to run as candidates in any of the thirty-one constituencies would have been September thirtieth.  Now, from the second of September until September thirtieth, the Honorable Faber had all the opportunities to abide by the NPC’s rulings and appeal its decisions.  I literally waited until like the very last minute to submit my application because the reality of it was that if the only person who applied for Collet was rejected, then there would be nobody from the U.D.P. representing in Collet.  So then, I submitted my application.  I waited for that response from the Nomination Committee, I had to go through that vetting process like everybody else who applied.”