Uncertainty Surrounds UDP’s Tracy Panton and Patrick Faber’s Future Candidacies Amid Party Expulsions

With all this talk about the general elections, the question remains as to whether Tracy Panton and Patrick Faber will be able to run under the United Democratic Party’s banner.  The two parliamentarians were expelled from the UDP and had confirmed earlier this week that he is looking to field new standard bearers for the Albert and Collet divisions.  Today, we asked the Minister of Public Service, Constitutional and Political Reform Henry Charles Usher about the situation and who would have the final say. 

Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Constitutional and Political Reform: “That’s a decision that the Chief Elections Officer will need to make. But certainly you have to remember I think that one of the sides was asking the Elections and Boundaries to determine who was the real UDP but that’s not something that Elections and Boundaries gets involved in. As a matter of fact they don’t recognize parties. When we are nominated as a candidate I am nominated as my name Henry Usher now I have to choose a color that I am going to run with and of course I would choose blue but it’s not that we are nominated as a member of the PUP or anybody else is nominated as a member of the UDP. You’re nominated as an individual in the particular constituency you want to represent. Now in terms of the decision as to who gets which color that’s up to the Chief Elections Officer. The tradition has been that the Chief will always say ok PUP who is your slate of 31 candidates and those 31 candidates get the blue color, same thing to the UDP who are your candidates so that they can get the color red but that’s just a tradition, that’s not found in any law and certainly it’s a decision that the Chief Elections Officer would need to make.”

It is to be noted that Tracy Panton has insisted on being the interim leader of the UDP and that she would be running under the UDP banner in the next general elections.