St George’s, April 5, 2013 – A former member of the National Democratic Congress says the party, which was booted out of office with a 15 – 0 general election defeat on February 19, would have been better served with a Glen Noel selection to the senate.
“Glen has nothing to lose; he is not a candidate for anything and he doesn’t have to please anyone. Nobody really likes him and that does not bother him,’’ said Arley Gill, former NDC public relations officer.
He and nine others were expelled from the party at its 2012 convention last September.
Noel, an influential aide to former Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, is a former senator who held responsibility for information and national mobilization. He’s the current NDC PRO.
Following the election defeat of the NDC by the New National Party (NNP), Governor General Carlyle Glean appointed the party’s deputy leader and former finance minister, Nazim Burke; party chairman and former education minister, Franka Bernadine; and former tourism minister, Dr George Vincent, to the senate.
“On the matter of the Governor General’s decision to appoint the three NDC senators, it will be true to say that the Queen’s representative misread the mood of the Grenadian people,’’ Gill writes in the latest issue of Caribupdate Weekly.
Burke, in particular, should not have accepted the senate job, argued Gill, a former NDC minister of information and culture.
“For many reasons, Burke is hugely unpopular and highly disliked,’’ said Gill. “NNP supporters hate him; NDC supporters do not trust him.’’
“My own pick for an NDC senator,’’ added Gill, “would have been Glen Noel. He knows how to make confusion and he’s a street fighter. He would keep the government busy for five years.’’
Burke, Bernadine and Vincent, according to Gill, “are more concerned about their image than being up and ready for any real political fight. NDC leadership still does not know how to deploy their forces.’’
Gill claims as well that, “it is clear that the NDC leader wants to and will stay, even though conventional wisdom says he and his deputy should go’’.