Will the P.U.P. Clean House on Election Day?

Vernon’s take on the situation within the U.D.P. is pretty bleak, echoing what other experts are saying: a clean sweep at the polls seems likely on election day.

 

Dr. Dylan Vernon, Political Scientist

“On the other side of the coin, of course, the opposition, the United Democratic Party is in self-destruct mode still.  The division that everyone knows of between the faction, the Alliance for Democracy and the UDP itself, under the leadership of Shyne Barrow, they seem to be at a point where reconciling before an election might be difficult, if not impossible to do.  And so, that more than anything else, all the strengths that the PUP, right now, has, they are actually outweighed by the divisions and the weakness of the UDP.  And so, yeah, in an election year like this, I could imagine that the prime minister and the leaders of the People’s United Party are feeling quite confident about their chances to the point where some people are even talking about a clean sweep, thirty-one to zero.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“When you look at what is presently taking place within the United Democratic Party and the fact that as a political organization it is so very divided and a general election is looming, it could be called at any moment really, what do you think are the chances, in terms of the UDP being able to get it together to mount some form of a formidable campaign against the ruling party?”

 

Dylan Vernon

“Yes.  You know, they say that a week is a very long time in politics, in partisan politics, electoral politics.  So a lot of things can happen, for example, suppose there is some huge, big scandal that comes out with the government and advantage is taken of that.  But that aside, I mean it is very clear that the UDP currently is in one of the weakest stages it has ever been historically and it is mostly self-imposed because of the internal division.  From my point of view, it seems unlikely that it will be resolved before the next [general] election, depending on when that is.  If it is an early election, of course, the chances are less so.”