UDP NPC Vote on Reinstatements Raises Questions

Is the UDP’s leadership playing by the rules or rewriting them? That’s the question being raised tonight as the National Party Council, led by Michael Peyrefitte, faces serious scrutiny. Opposition Leader Tracy Panton is speaking out forcefully. At a press conference today, she and her fellow parliamentarians flatly rejected the results of a recent vote to reinstate them as party members, a vote that notably excluded Patrick Faber. Panton claims the in-person meeting didn’t meet quorum and says only twenty-eight out of one hundred and six council members actually voted online. Her words were sharp: “This isn’t democracy — it’s dictatorship,” she said, calling the process “pure madness.” So, what does this mean for the future of the UDP? And who really holds the power in the party? Those are the questions facing both members and the public.

 

Tracy Taegar-Panton, Leader of the Opposition

“What took place on Saturday, we have yet, up to this point we are yet to receive an official report or an unofficial one from anybody within the party. We have not heard from the chairman, the vice chairman, the secretary general. We have not heard from the former party leader. What we have heard is what everyone has heard in the public domain. We have not even received the courtesy of a text message to tell us this resolution was put on the floor virtually. They did not have a quorum at the physical meeting. They did not have a quorum at the virtual meeting and to say that these resolutions were resolutions that carried, because as I saw in one of the media outlets, there was a message from the chairman who said the voting will end at five. If you don’t specifically object it means you voted for. That is pure madness. That is not the democracy that I know. That is not the democracy we believe in or the democracy we intent to promote or uphold.”