ST GEORGE’S: GRENADA’S RULING NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS IS SEEKING to get a full list of candidates for general elections it is under pressure to call.
NDC is without a full slate of 15 candidates, as it struggles to rebuild its core following the very public split in the movement.
In the last few days, the party machinery now under the full control of leader Tillman Thomas, has been seeking to confirm candidates in a number of areas.
There are still questions as to who will contest elections for the party in about half a dozen of the 15 seats – according to our count.
Though elections could be delayed to the beginning of the second half of next year, there is widespread speculation that a poll is likely by the first quarter of the year.
The final date, observers say, could well be determined by how soon the ruling party could finalise its slate.
The main contender – New National Party – has had a largely settled slate for months.
As the ruling party, seek to settle on its team, On Sunday Legal Affairs Minister George Prime was replaced as the candidate for Carriacou with a political newcomer.
But a meeting on Tuesday night, at which it was widely expected that Housing Minister Alleyne Walker would have been reconfirmed for St Andrew’s North West, ended in some confusion.
Walker himself did not attend the meeting – apparently staying away as his supporters battled for his political survival against an apparent challenge from Phillip Alexander, an adviser working out of the Prime Minister’s office.
At the end of the night no candidate was confirmed, and another meeting set for next week is expected to decide whether Walker stays or goes.
Senator Franka Bernadine, the current Minister of Education was endorsed as the caretaker for the Town of St George this week in a closed-door session.
On most people’s count, the NDC could have as many as eight or nine new candidates of its 15-member slate for the next general elections.
It is still struggling to find a candidate for rural St David’s, a seat it won in the last two electoral cycles.
With the retirement of Agriculture Minister Denis Lett, the party’s plans for the area were thrown into confusion when the medical doctor who was being groomed for the seat opted out – sources say he being weary of the division that has haunted the party for the last few years.
A second choice prospect also declined – and the party is now considering a local college lecturer.
Moves to replace current Labour Minister Sylvester Quarless have also hit a snag, as more than half a dozen choices have turned down the invitations, according to our sources.
The party has also been hunting a multiple calypso crown winner to run in St Patrick’s West, as a replacement for Joseph Gilbert, but he has refused the offer.
A teacher who once ran for the fringe Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement is next in line as the likely candidate to come up against Anthony Boatswain.
He is said to be “80 percent there” in deciding to become the candidate, though party negotiators say he has been holding out for “have some personal financial matters settled by the party on his behalf.”
