Tonight, Patrick Faber's image no longer hangs above the UDP party headquarters on a larger than life billboard - and that's because Faber is UDP Leader no more. The party's second highest decision making body - the National Party Council met for 6 hours on Saturday and voted - by a razor thin margin - to accept his resignation.
Now, he never did formally send in that letter of resignation - but the UDP Chairman advanced a position to the NPC that under the Electronic Transactions Act - he had resigned.
In the end 49 members of the NPC agreed with him, 48 did not - so the motion to consider him resigned was carried by the smallest possible margin. Peyreffite explained the justification in a press briefing via Zoom this morning:
Hon. Mike Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.
"It is Act No. 25 of 2021, I think, it was an electronics act that came out that says if you want to do something you don't have to put it in what we would now term the old-fashioned wet ink signature, ink on paper type of thing. The new rules and the new way of the world has made it available for you to make pronouncements and say certain things without necessarily actually putting it in writing. So the Honourable Patrick Faber was a member of the house, is a member of the house and was certainly a member of the house when that act was passed. So I have to believe that when he made the pronouncements publicly, to the world, that he would be doing that on January thirty-first, I have to believe that he knew that that would be effective even though a physical letter was not actually sent to myself or the secretariat. Indeed, the N.P.C. accepted his resignation and we decided to move on and set new dates for a new leader of the party to be voted in."
Jules Vasquez
"But in fact, Mr. Faber was at the meeting, it's a virtual meeting, he did attend the meeting virtually and he did make the case that he did make the case that he has not in fact resign and he wished to stay on until March 27th and hand over to a new leader. He wished to shepherd the party as it were through the convention process, am I right?"
Hon. Mike Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.
"I don't remember you being logged into the meeting, Jules, But I won't reveal what happened in the meeting. Unlike other people, I won't reveal what happened in the meeting."
Jules Vasquez
"Are you able to say if Mr. Faber was there and he did say that he has not in fact resigned?"
Hon. Mike Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.
"He logged into the meeting and what I know is that come March 27th, we will have an election for a new leader of the UDP."
Jules Vasquez
"Are you surprised at how close the vote was?"
Hon. Mike Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.
"I've been in politics for about 4 decades, very little surprises me in politics. I will say that things continue to disappoint me, but very little surprises me."
So, to go over it, the UDP will have its leadership convention on Sunday March 27th, and persons interested in applying for the post have to submit their names by this Friday, February 11th. We are certain that Tracy Taegar Panton and Shyne Barrow will be doing so, but there could be others. Were he to wish to do so, Patrick Faber is not barred from applying.
