As we told you at the top of the news, the UDP is at war with itself - and in the middle of a parliamentary coup and a recall of its leader.
But hours before the no confidence letter by three representatives was emailed to the GG, the chairman of the party spoke with the media about, what he calls, their rebuilding.
At the time, it seemed like a simple way forward for the party: a recall convention in which the delegates would vote whether they wanted Patrick Faber to remain as their leader.
If they had voted no, there would then be a leadership convention during which any of the 8 members of the National Assembly could contest.
And while a wrench has been thrown in those plans, this morning, the chairman, Michael Peyrefitte, had explained that he was trying to fast track the recall convention so that they could put this behind them and get on with restoring their former glory.
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, UDP
"I've looked at it and I've called a central executive meeting for this Thursday and we'll meet and discuss the way forward because my goal is to get it over with quickly, go to a convention and have a vote. Either they will vote, the delegates, to keep Honorable Patrick Faber as the leader or they will recall him. But my thinking is just to get on with it, get it done as quickly as possible, give both sides a chance to get ready, we have to pick a date, a time, a venue, what the question will actually be for the vote and I have pretty much worked those out myself, I have a date, a time, a venue, I have the question in mind and everything, I just want to meet with the central executive of the party and the NPC so I can inform them of my intentions and we can discuss the matter more."
Courtney Menzies:
"You don't seem very concerned and when you were on UnCut you spoke about this situation as just a rebuilding of the party and the party leader, Patrick Faber, said the same thing and the public feels like you're just downplaying it because this is a serious situation, this is the first time in history something like this is happened so is that concern there?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, UDP
"When we were drafting the constitution, we contemplated the possibility of the delegates choosing to remove the leader if that's what they want, it was the UDP who put in place the recall mechanisms for member of the house of representatives so we figure it was just fair that if we could ask the public if they so choose to recall members from the House, then our officers within the party can be recalled as well so it is unusual, as I said before, it's never a good thing, it's not a pleasurable thing to go through but it's provided for in the constitution and if the petitioners meet their 1/3 threshold to trigger the process then we go through the process."
Reporter:
"Have you had any conversation with the party leader since the petition was delivered at the secretariat? What is his feeling, his sentiment on everything that's happening?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, UDP
"I informed him and just to keep him abreast of what's going on but the conversation was no more than just that because I don't want there to be any perception that somehow I'm taking sides with either the leader or the petitioners, as the chairperson I have to remain very neutral in this situation to make sure the procedure takes its natural course."
And while the UDP may seem to be on crutches at this point, Chairman Peyrefitte maintained that this process was normal and that however it ended, the party would maintain its unity and democracy.
Courtney Menzies:
"Doesn't all this inter-fighting sort of weaken the party, I mean Mr Herrera was very enthusiastic about getting way more signatures than they actually needed and it shows that they don't have confidence in Mr Faber and if Mr Faber were to maintain leadership how does he constitute to trust his party?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, UDP
"Well if I may give my opinion on that, I disagree that this weakens the party so to speak, I think sometimes these things can be good, if you have issues with people or if you want to put things to the test, put it to the test, but I can assure you, if there's a leadership recall convention, Mr Faber is victorious at that, then everybody, including those who led the petition drive will have respect the fact that the delegates want Mr Faber as their leader and they will have to respect the fact that Mr Faber is the leader. Mr Faber as a leader will then be encouraged to reach out to those same persons who tried to recall him so we can mend fences and we can move on. Like I said before, politics is not a game for the faint of heart."
Courtney Menzies:
"And while you say this might be a part of any normal democracy from the outside looking in as the voter's might be seeing, well the UDP already lost in two landslide elections against the PUP and now they can even decide who they want as their leader, this is a black eye, and huge black eye, on the UDP."
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, UDP
"Well if - I can see Jules is rubbing off on you a lot - if one wants to be cynical, one can say that. I prefer to look at it as the part of a rebuilding process, as a growing process, when you're growing, you have difficulties, you have obstacles, and to me it's just a part of it, it's a part of the process, we have to get it behind us at some point, we have to deal with it at some point, but we're still very early before our next general election, we're still very early in the rebuilding process, and I am not as concerned with it as most people are because I think that from within this is what happens, when you're rebuilding a business, when you're rebuilding family ties, you go through difficulties, it's just that in politics you are in a fishbowl and if you blink a certain way it is observed by the world and I think that's why it's so magnified but it's just a part of it, I say and I have no doubt that the UDP will be a United Democratic Party again and will be victorious at the polls again."
During that time before the recall convention, it would have been expected that both Faber and those who led the petition against him would try to win over the delegates. If Faber were recalled as leader, the interim leader would be Hugo Patt.
