Last night you heard the Chairman of the UDP explain why the recall petition against party leader Shyne Barrow had been rejected. Well, today, the man who led the petition effort, Alberto August led a press conference to explain why the chairman got it dead wrong. So what are the Shyne dissidents going to do about it?
Well, that part isn't so clear. Jules Vasquez reports:
Today, UDP vice chairman and petitioner in chief Alberto August unveiled to the media the petitions against Shyne Barrow.
These are the 201 signatures he says support the petition. And those that look like this - with no declaration of what they are signing?
Well he says those are just the page after the declaration.
Alberto August, Leader - "Recall Project"
"Now of course you will not have the heading on all the pages, because its 2 pages, so you had the attachments to it and some of them signed on the third page that might have had the heading. But the entire document includes 2 pages of information. Although all we could have said was that you're signing to recall the party leader, but we gave them 6 reasons as to why the party leader should be recalled."
Seems eminently questionable, so why did he hand this in to a Chairman not known to be sympathetic to the "Recall Project's" cause?:
Jules Vasquez
"And a party chairman who I know is not sympathetic to your side of the argument. Should not the threshold of proof on those signatures been higher, that you should have gotten individual attestations, though tedious it may have been to compile 200 of them. Individual attestations like the recissions which you have seen, like the recissions which say I, x-name support a recall, instead of having mass signatures on a paper, knowing that you're going into a headwind."
Alberto August, Leader - "Recall Project"
"Hindsight is usually 20/20, but we did not expect that kind of behaviour on the part of these people. We always seek to err on the side of mercy and we always seek to see them as fair persons. We are in a position where the national chairperson of the party is taking a unilateral decision on this matter. We have requested for him while he is the national chairperson of the party, he's not the legal advisor of the party. We have requested for him to seek the advice of the legal advisor of the party and he's refusing to do so."
But now the movement called the Recall Project has layered up - and their lawyer says signatures cannot be revoked.
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney - "Recall Project"
"Delegates do not have the opportunity to cancel or retract any of those petitions once they are delivered to the chairman. It is like a normal election process, once you go to the polls and vote and the polls close at 6 or 7pm, you cannot go back to the returning officer and say I want to take back my ballot."
Jules Vasquez
"Suppose I say, sir that is a false equivalency - signing in a petition is not a vote per say, it is signing that I support it. One can recind one support."
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney - "Recall Project"
"You have signed a petition and there is a process that you must go through. I already outlined what must happen after you signed. You cannot go and retract it and I will say that and they will say yes you can retract it, so like I said this will be a matter that will be decided by a judge."
Jules Vasquez
"Obviously, going to court is a whole other level and it will not immediately yield the result you desire, which is to recall the leader of the UDP. Is it a practical strategy at this time for you to pursue?"
Alberto August, Leader - "Recall Project"
"We are listening to the delegates of our party in terms of the way forward."
These are the rescissions - which came via email - from personal email addresses. August and his team are also suggesting fraud in this - and there may be something to that, but they are lot more convincing than pages with just signatures - of which there are more than 10.
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney - "Recall Project"
"There had to be something to motivate them to retract. And there had to be something that motivate a change of heart."
That's why today - August said, oddly that the recall has been triggered:
Alberto August, Leader - "Recall Project"
"Through the signatures as required by the constitution of our party properly in order and as far as we are concerned the recall has been triggered. The next stage of that is for the voters to vote yes or no. Not even nobody names on the ballot yet, you know. Yes or no."
Jules Vasquez
"Since you believe a recall has been triggered, what do you all do next? Are you going to have a mock recall?"
Alberto August, Leader - "Recall Project"
"That is why we are seeking legal advice. We have a legal team represented here by Mr. Rodriguez."
Jules Vasquez
"But a lawyer will take you to court, a general will take you to war. Who are you going to listen to?"
Alberto August, Leader - "Recall Project"
"That is the decision of the team to first seek legal advice on the matter. Probably who knows, might be the commencement of another recall. We don't know, because there is no limit for the conduct of any recall. If they want one name on each paper, then we will give them one name on each paper, because those same persons are prepared to sign again."
Jules Vasquez
"Is there some point at which you may have to concede that the recall project is stillborn and that it makes no sense to continue wasting your energies and precious resources to continue to fight uphill against a hostile executive and that you all may just have to fall in behind the leader until a convention and then you can make a challenge on him at that time."
Alberto August, Leader - "Recall Project"
"I don't want to follow you up in terms of the recall being stillborn. The recall is born. Somebody is trying to kill it. Its alive and well. The recall is not stillborn. The recall is triggered."
Notably, August was not flanked by Tracey Teagar Panton or Patrick Faber - the two senior party figures leading the recall effort. At the start of the meeting, he said he was expecting Teagar Panton - but she never.
