The PUP convention for a new leader is set for Sunday March 30th and as we told you, the jostling has already started. 7NEWS has confirmed that Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde, who represent a reform wing of the party, today wrote to the Chairman asking for some key changes before the convention.
The pair repeat a request they made 3 years ago, asking that the pool of delegates be expanded. Presently each candidate is assigned 1 delegate per each 100 votes he or she earned in the last election; Hyde and Espat recommend that to make the convention more representative, the ratio should be one delegate per 25 votes. Additionally, they ask that the list of delegates be finalized one week before. Chairman Francis Fonseca told us this evening that he had not seen the letter. Others in the party contend that the requests are unrealistic because the ration of delegates would require a change in the party’s constitution.
And why is this business with delegates so important? Well they are the PUP supporters who vote for leader on the convention floor. But more critical is that as things currently stand – any challenger to the party status quo – and as a hopeful for leader, Espat would have to be seen as that – must appeal to delegates more than he does to the candidates. That’s because candidates are more likely to be bound by loyalty to the status quo – represented in this case by Francis Fonseca – and his cousin Ralph Fonseca who is the outgoing National Campaign Manager and still controls the party’s purse strings.
