The Public Relations Officer of the main opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) Dean Jonas has denied that the ALP is in crisis following open rebellion by two of its members, Maureen Payne-Hyman and Daven Joseph.
Speaking on The Big Issues programme on Sunday, Jonas said Payne-Hyman’s recent resistance against the polling method of selecting electoral candidates pose no threat to the organisation since it’s a tradition within the ALP once there is an incumbent to resort to negotiations or polling to determine the candidate.
He added that the most recent polls were done in St Mary’s North where Molywn Joseph emerged victor in 2007 and political leader Lester Bird was also victorious in St John’s Rural East that same year.
Making reference to Tim Hector, former deputy of the ruling United Progressive Party (UPP), Jonas pointed out that he was dismissed from the UPP (which was the then opposition) over a difference of opinion. So the bottom line, according to Jonas is, “In all political parties you always have issues of candidacy.”
He insisted that the perceived notion that internal rife is causing the party to disintegrate is absurd and like the party’s leader Lester Bird has said, “the debate as to how we are going to proceed properly belongs in the central executive and not in the media or anywhere else.”
Jonas also pointed out that he and other ALP members are concerned that their colleagues’ recent interviews with OBSERVER Media might “distract the country away from the core issues … serious and severe problems facing Antigua.”
Both Payne-Hyman and Joseph accused the party of anti-democratic practices.
Payne-Hyman, former ALP candidate for St Phillip South, recently voiced opposition to the party’s decision to use a poll to select the candidate in that area.
Although Joseph is yet to make his views public about the polling method, he was dissatisfied with the party’s leader Lester Bird, who told OBSERVER Media he made a promise to the Antigua Trades & Labour Union to give their president Wigley George the All Saints West constituency – a move that would not only peeve Joseph but would also see him being unseated as the caretaker for that area.
And while Bird has threatened to take both Payne-Hyman and Joseph to the disciplinary committee, it is the leader whom some ALP supporters now have under the microscope.
They told The Big Stories that the time has come for the aging Lester Bird, who’s now in his 70s, to pass on the mantle.
They said the ALP can still benefit from the leader but as one ALP supporter told OBSERVER, “the political leader needs to stop playing psychology and endorse his successor.”
