Local News

NDC party “precariously positioned’’, says Grenada newspaper

PM Tillman Thomas1

St George’s, October 11, 2013 – The National Democratic Congress, which was booted out of office in February 19 general elections, is holding a members’ meeting on Sunday in the northern St Patrick parish.

It’s the first NDC general council since March 2012, and the first major gathering of members since the election defeat eight months ago.

The party, on its facebook page, also says it’s inviting “one and all to a grand public meeting’’ that will follow the general council.

The NDC is urging Grenadians to “organize your transport now’’ and “come out in your numbers’’ to the meeting.

In the February polls, the NDC lost all 15 parliamentary seats to the governing New National Party of Prime Minister Keith Mitchell.

“We suspect that, as with almost every meeting of the diehards of any political party, Sunday’s will be the flag-waving of members and the rallying of the troops in an effort to boost the morale of the rank and file,’’ Caribupdate, a Grenada newspaper, said in this weekend’s editorial.

According to the paper, the NDC is “precariously positioned’’ as a political party.

“Its future survival depends on how it handles its transition to a new leader and who it chooses as its new leader,’’ the editorial said.

“To return to a national election with Tillman Thomas at the helm of the party almost ensures inevitable defeat of the NDC – again. To return to a national election with the “wrong’’ new leader – one who is not able to broaden the appeal of the party – most certainly would lead to defeat also. NDC is between the proverbial rock and a hard place.’’

Caribupdate also questions whether the NDC, which formed the government in 2008 after winning an 11 – 4 parliamentary majority, had lost its “moral compass’’.

“The utterances from party members in the last few months often lead to the scratching of heads,’’ the paper said.  “The most jaw-dropping of these utterances was the writing of an NDC member who has shamelessly tried to inflame hatred against a group of Grenadians based on their ethnic and cultural ancestry.’’

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