The glimmer of light that we told you was at the end of the dark UDP tunnel turned out to just be a flashlight - and tonight it's definitely flickering. That's because there are multiple concerns following the meeting of the leadership executive yesterday. We begin with this letter from Hugo Patt, Omar Figueroa, and Aldo Salazar, addressed to Michael Peyrefitte, Alberto August, Tony Herrera, and Shyne Barrow. The letter expresses their concern on two items from yesterday's agenda.
The first was to finalize the National Party Council agenda and membership list. This list was agreed to be comprehensive and was supposed to be shared, and discussed during the meeting. However, they say they still have not received it. The next item referenced using the October 2024 NPC delegate roll as a starting point. According to the letter, they expected a reconciliation of that list to finalize the membership, as former prime minister Dean Barrow proposed. However, they say since the list wasn't circulated, this task was never fully completed. And with that still pending, they say they cannot support moving forward with the NPC.
And if that wasn't bad enough, Tracy Panton also posted a statement on her Facebook page saying, quote, "We will not be used. We will not be manipulated. We will not be part and parcel of any "plans" that are intentionally set out to be perverse and punitive Those who know me know that even when I was standing alone, I have always stood on the side of what is both constitutionally and morally correct. For anyone to suggest anything differently is a blatant misrepresentation of who I am and what I have always stood up against." End quote.
This was followed by a post by Lee Mark Chang referencing a "notice" purportedly from the UDP inviting those who want to offer themselves as standard bearers for 17 constituencies. Chang captioned the post, "Who approved this list?"
So, like the tower of Babel, everyone in the UDP is on a different page, maybe even in a different book, and, tonight, it's safe to say unity isn't doesn't appear to be on the horizon for July 12th. But when we spoke to the returning Chairman Peyrefitte yesterday he was a little more confident.
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, UDP:
"At the July 12th NPC, there will be a deadline set for all those who want to contest the October 5th convention. Leader, first deputy, second deputy, chair, vice chair, 5 persons. So if only one person puts up their name for any of those 5 positions, then naturally that person is endorsed at the national convention."
Reporter:
"Have these decisions that were taken today already been forward to Ms Panton and does she accept?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, UDP:
"I'm sure she has seen them. They were forwarded to the Central Executive Committee and they will be forwarded to the NPC and we did a national release so she would have seen it. In terms of giving her that courtesy, she is the leader of the opposition, we have to respect her, but the court also said for her to be in good standing with the party, she needs to be re-invited to the UDP on July 12th and as we all agreed there today, I will be the first one to vote to bring her back in. We're trying to unify the party and move forward."
Reporter:
"And so a lot of these decisions favor her. A lot, I think, is what they were requesting, correct?"
Michael Peyrefitte, Chairman, UDP:
"No. you're forgetting what I told you originally. Before I came back as chairman, they were having discussions with elders of the party and the elders of the party indicated to me that Tracy, Hugo, Shyne, and Alberto August had agreed to a template. So for some time, up to this date she hasn't disagreed properly to say I didn't agree that I agreed to that per se. fine, but we cannot wait until everybody agrees. So when I came back, I said, we are going to proceed on this because it looks like it's a good way forward. So when we met today, and there are some people there who, I mean come on, it's reasonable for the public to say some of them supported tracy, some of them supported Shyne, but even those today who don't represent Tracy per se but they are friendly to her and her cause, they even said this is a good way forward. It's not everything that we want but it's a good way forward so I have every hope and expectation that when she sees it, she will say, you know what? An end of this is in sight. We're at July 2nd. 3 months, just allow the process to take place for 3 months and the person who I would assume she's most worried about is Shyne and he cannot contest the convention on October 5th because he's not a member of the National Assembly."
We'll keep following the political soap opera and let you know what happens next.
