Which UDP will Supporters Vote for on Election Day?

Who will United Democratic Party supporters back when they head to the polls on election day? Will it be the U.D.P. under Shyne Barrow’s leadership, or will Tracy Taegar-Panton take the helm? And perhaps the biggest question of all: can mediation resolve the leadership tussle before election day arrives? We posed these pressing questions to Taegar-Panton earlier today. Here’s what she had to say.

 

Marion Ali

“If I’m a UDP supporter but I’m a little confused as to who is the actual leader of the party and I see that on the ballot paper, when the election is called, there are two names under UDP, one under Mr. Barrow, and one under you. How do I decipher, as a UDP voter, who I vote for? Is one legitimate and the other not?”

 

Tracy Taegar-Panton, Area Representative, Albert

“I think that’s premature. I think that question is premature. We have agreed to a mediated process that will be facilitated by the court, and we do so with a very open mind as to how we are going to approach that mediation.  We don’t know that we’re going to have more than thirty-one candidates running for the United Democratic Party.  Certainly, as it relates to our movement, we maintain that the standard bearers of the party are the standard bearers of the party.  They were either elected in a contested convention or they were approved or ratified in an endorsement convention, and you can’t just willy-nilly dismiss that.  Like I said, the constitution outlines a process that needs to happen. And so, for us, there are thirty-one UDP candidates that will be running for the next elections.”