Bertrand Joseph Declines to Endorse a Candidate

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Politics

Tuesday, 10 July 2012 02:30

By Everton Barnes

Antigua St. John’s – The United Progressive Party’s (UPP’s) current caretaker for St Mary’s North Constituency, Bertrand Joseph, has declared that he will not be a candidate for the party in the upcoming general elections, but at the same time, he refuses to publicly endorse any of the candidates seeking nomination for the parliamentary seat.

Joseph said he had officially informed the party branch of his decision, and later told Political Leader, Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and Chairman Harold Lovell, in a joint meeting with both men earlier this year.

As word spread of Joseph’s decision, an intense campaign has been waged within the UPP to find a candidate to fill the void. So far, three persons have indicated an interest. They are the current member for All Saints East and St Luke, Chester Hughes; medical practitioner Philmore Benjamin; and pharmacist Algernon Roberts.

There’s been much division within the party branch over the entry of Hughes as a potential candidate for St. Mary’s North, and branch members took the unprecedented step of staging a public protest at a UPP rally in Cashew Hill two weeks ago.

The protestors have also penned an open letter to the Prime Minister, clearly stating that they do not wish to have Hughes declared the UPP candidate for St Mary’s North Constituency.

But Joseph said it is not prudent for him to get involved in the intensely divisive campaign.

“It is not wise for me to get involved in this matter and that’s why I am adopting a hands-off approach,” he noted.

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However, he said that he wants to see the party’s rules and regulations applied to the conduct of the selection process. “There’s a procedure to be followed with regard to who becomes the candidate. The process requires that the vacancy be properly advertised, thereby giving all interested the opportunity to formally declare their intentions,” he added.

Joseph said direct appeals by branch members to Spencer are “presumptuous” as they are asking the Political Leader to violate the requirements of the party’s constitution. He dismissed out of hand any suggestion that a candidate may be “parachuted” into the area as that would be a clear violation of the party’s rules and which, in the end, may hurt the UPP’s chances in the 2014 general elections.

The one-term parliamentarian also addressed the issue of constituency boundary changes, or gerrymandering, as being alleged by the opposition Antigua Labour Party.

“I think the constituencies are in need of changes to make them more equitable. There are about three or four very large constituencies and about the same very small ones. There needs to be more equity in the distribution of the voters. However, when you are changing the constituency boundaries, you don’t want to have a situation where you are butchering communities to arrive at this equity. In any case, it has to be seen to be fair,” Joseph said.

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