Following what may be described as a marathon meeting of delegates at Coconut Bay on Sunday, the United Workers Party failed to disclose to the local media what exactly had transpired. The UWP internal meeting was convened in the wake of internal wranglings between the recently elected political leader Allen Chastanet who lost his bid to win a seat at the last general elections and the parliamentary opposition leader and former prime minister Stevenson King who won his seat handsomely at the last polls.
The press was invited to a press conference by the UWP on Sunday, which was supposed to have taken place originally at 4pm following their meeting. However, after camping outside the resort under less than conducive conditions, the media core grew vocally agitated after constant shifting of the press conference time by the UWP’s communication’s strategist Elijah Anatole. At times, the former reporter appeared non-the- wiser as to what was happening behind the closed door meeting at the Coconut Bay conference room.
Then at about 9:30 pm, as delegates ended the meeting and hurried past reporters, the press was informed that there would be no press conference but party chairman Ezekiel Joseph would take some questions. “The delegates are of the view that the parliamentarians should meet-they have been given strict instructions as to what should be the the outcome and the parliamentarians will meet to discuss this on Monday,” Joseph informed the media. Asked about precisely what was the outcome of the meeting he would only reiterated that the delegates had arrived at a position which the parliamentarians would meet to discuss further. “Then on Tuesday morning we will invite the media to a press conference informing them of that decision,” Joseph says. According to the former Agriculture minister quite a bit was discussed at Sunday’s meeting including the whole aspect of the elections officer and the aspect of confidentiality within the party. “The delegates have agreed work with Michael Flood who will have to collaborate with the UWP election officer,” Joseph says. Asked whether UWP’s Castries Central MP Richard Frederick was discussed, Joseph responded “briefly.” Frederick, besides King has been a subject of dissent within the UWP failing to attend meetings. He has also openly expressed his dissatisfaction with Allen Chastanet as political leader.
When the question was put to Ezekiel Joseph as to whether the party had decided to abide by its constitution and make Gail Rigobert opposition leader his only response was that the constitution was clear on the issues. The STAR has learnt however that Rigobert was given the nod at Sundays meeting. At the end of the night political leader Allen Chastanet appeared quite jovial although not going on record to make any statement to the media.
