GULP is getting ready

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Parent Category: Jan 2012

Category: Week end Jan 14th, 2012

Published on Sunday, 22 January 2012 15:55

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With general elections on the island, a mere 18-months away, the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) has re-emerged to disclose its intention to contest the poll and provide Grenadians with an alternative to both the governing and main opposition parties in Parliament.

Addressing reporters at a press conference on Monday  at the Public Workers Union (PWU) building, GULP officials said the party is positioning itself as “The Alternative” political party to take Grenada forward.The GULP also outlined some of its plans to become a party to be reckoned with at the next general election with the message that the country’s oldest political party is “not dead and buried in the St George’s Centre Cemetery”.

This is reference to a calypso sung a few years ago by former monarch, Black Wizard that the labour party died with the charismatic and controversial Sir Eric.GULP’s Deputy President, Wayne Francis sought to dispel this “fallacy” saying that while the former founder and political leader, Sir Eric died, the party has never died and its supporters still carry the GULP philosophy in their bowels.He noted that without the support of GULP supporters, the parties that have won elections in Grenada since Gairy’s demise, would not have been able to do so without the support of labour.

According to Francis, while Gairy had died, his belief and ideologies continue to live on. He disclosed that GULP will be contesting the country’s next general election due in 2013 and was convinced that the party is “The Alternative” to the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New National Party (NNP). Francis claimed that there is a political void in the country and accused the Congress administration of Prime Minister Tillman Thomas of failing to implement any major project to create jobs for the people.

GULP is now branding itself as a more technologically advanced party and the only political grouping that truly represents the people of Grenada. It was announced that the party will hold its convention in March to elect a new executive and that the manifesto is 50% complete.

While not disclosing the name of the possible candidate line-up, Francis said that a number of aspiring politicians would emerge to contest the general election for the GULP. Some of the persons seen in the building attending the GULP press conference were former Act. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, and General Manager of Communal Cooperative Credit Union, Lennox “Toes” Andrews, Parliamentary Representative for St John and Government Backbencher, Michael Church, Sociologist, Claude Douglas, and former Government Minister and Opposition Leader, Michael Baptiste.

The GULP Deputy President said that over the next few months, the party would be putting together its plans, which will be revealed in the coming months. Ex-policeman Joseph Cyrus, who is a Deputy President of the party also addressed reporters and pointed out that he is encouraged by the young people’s interest in rebuilding the labour party. Cyrus said the role he intends to play is to provide guidance and support and to assist the younger heads to lead the process of rebuilding the party and eventually getting  political power in the country.

He said that he is now seeing is a strong technical team emerging filled with ideas, united in a common ideal to work without rest to transform Grenada and restore the dignity of the country. Cyrus stressed that the infighting within the party over the years is now a thing of the past and that due diligence will be carried out to ensure that no one of questionable character becomes part of the renewed GULP.

He said the leadership will also ensure that persons within the party are reliable in order to avoid another situation as was the case with former Political Leader, Colin Francis who resigned from the party five months after being elected to the post on the grounds that he needed “to further his studies”. One of the areas of interest for the GULP is agriculture and the party while not disclosing its plans for this sector, said that they will be seeking better financing partnership for farmers to make the business of agriculture more beneficial to them.

The labour party was last in power in March 1979 when Sir Eric was toppled in a coup d’etat by the left-leaning New Jewel Movement (NJM) of Maurice Bishop.

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