In one of the most dramatic political upsets in years: the first Deputy Leader of the UDP was yesterday displaced as standard bearer in the Caribbean Shores.
In yesterday's divisional convention, Oscar Ayuso lost by a margin of 41 votes to Carlos Perdomo. 1037 voters cast their ballot; Perdomo received 533, and Ayuso received 491. It is a colossal upset: as we said, Ayuso is the Deputy Opposition Leader and had been in the division since 1999. Perdomo is a newcomer to electoral politics and just started working in the division a few months ago.
With the narrow victory, he now prepares to face PUP incumbent Jose Coye who may face his own challenge at the convention level. But that challenge is for another day, tonight, the UDP's Deputy Leader has no constituency an almost unprecedented political pickle. It's left to be seen how Ayuso and the party will extricate itself from an embarrassing situation.
Still, we note that, strictly speaking, the fact that Ayuso does not have a constituency stronghold does not disqualify him from serving as Deputy. Should he choose to vacate that post, a new deputy would foreseeably be picked at the Party's national convention scheduled for November.
