While insisting that there was no love lost between them and former Barbados Labour Party (BLP) representative Owen Arthur, the St Peter Branch of the BLP tonight said it was standing firmly behind Mia Mottley as their political leader and supporting Colin Jordan as “caretaker” for the rural constituency.
The declarations came following a two-hour branch meeting held at The Alexandra School Hall, which attracted several constituents.
Speaking to members of the media at the conclusion of the meeting, public relations officer of the branch Carl Boyce said: “We would have met the party’s secretariat last Wednesday at party headquarters and this afternoon we would have met the entire St Peter branch at The Alexandra School Hall to confirm that we the members of the St Peter executive body have decided that we have remained fully committed to the BLP.
“We as a branch have also recommended to the executive of this great party that Jordan, we the members of the St Peter branch will be sending forward and asking as soon as possible to have a nomination so that he will be the caretaker in this constituency,” he added.
Boyce also served notice to the St Peter community that “we will soon be coming to their homes with Jordan as soon as that process has taken place to cement our place in St Peter.
“We are fully committed to the BLP as well as the executive and we are fully behind the Leader of the Opposition and that is the message that we have.”
The developments follow Arthur’s formal resignation from the party on July 26, saying the BLP had lost its way and that he had decided to sit as an independent in the House of Assembly.
However, Boyce, who has been one of Arthur’s loyal campaigners through the years, said: “I will signal to the country that we in St Peter still love former Prime Minister Owen Arthur and would like to thank him for the service he would have done in this constituency.
“We would want to wish him health and prosperity in whatever he does. We accept his decision, but we as a branch have decided to stay with the BLP,” Boyce added.
Also addressing members of the media, Mottley said: “As you can see, we had virtually 100 persons who turned up this evening and we are confident that we can go forward and that we can ensure that the BLP’s interest will be well represented in this parish.
“The branch is keen, the branch is enthusiastic and I must tell you that, as leader, I now have to show my hand and to say that I too had the pleasure of working with Jordan who came to our parliamentary party meeting. So pleased were we with his performance that, as you know, we would have invited him to join us on the national platform that we staged at Carlisle Car Park [recently].
“Jordan is a man in whom I have the greatest confidence,” she added.
Basking in the goodwill shown to him during and after the meeting, Jordan, a former president of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, who is currently employed at Mango Bay as a hotel executive, noted that, “the branch in St Peter and the people in St Peter have a tradition of making their own decisions”.
“They have made their views known tonight, but there is a process that the party has to go through and my style is never to count the chickens before they hatch.
“The process will take place and the branch will formally make its decision. At that point everyone will be able to share views,” he said, adding that, “we have to wait on the process”.
nevilleclarke@barbadostoday.bb