'Get used to Opposition' - Comrades baffled by Hanover East decision
Published:Monday | September 4, 2017 | 12:00 AMErica Virtue
A decision on Sunday by the People's National Party (PNP) to keep a popular medical doctor out of the leadership of the party in Eastern Hanover has left some supporters and officials with their mouths agape.
The Gleaner was told that the doctor went to Sunday's conference with the expectation that he would be announced as the new constituency chairman, replacing Dr D.K. Duncan. The doctor even addressed the conference in the presence of the party's president, Dr Peter Phillips.
However, in an unexpected move, he was told that he "would undergo a one-year period of training ... because D.K. had unfinished business".
PNP General Secretary Julian Robinson told The Gleaner: "D.K. remains the chairman of the constituency. There hasn't been any selection. He (the doctor) is just a new member of the party willing to serve in the future, but for now, he is simply working with the organisation."
STILL NOT SATISFIED
Neither the explanation nor Sunday's events have pacified some PNP supporters.
"This is complete and utter foolishness. A man nearly 80 years old, and he is going to put a man nearly half his age in a one-year apprenticeship. This from a party who take people and install them a month before an election," an angry source uttered.
Another baffled supporter said, "I am at a loss as to what happened yesterday (Sunday), but I can tell you that they are going to frustrate the hell out of him until he runs far away from politics and the party. I am so disappointed with Peter. The bold changes we were expecting from his leadership have not happened. I have one message for them: Get used to Opposition."
Duncan resigned as chairman of the Eastern Hanover constituency leading up to the 2016 general election, after serving as member of parliament from 2007 to 2016. He was reinstalled after Wynter MacIntosh, who replaced him, lost to the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Dave Hume-Brown.
Constituency conferences are being held ahead of the annual conference, expected to be hosted later this month.