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HOME	APRIL 09th, 2005

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A delegate at last Saturday's Convention of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) held at the Anglican School in St. John's failed in his attempt to get the meeting to remove George Prime from the post of Deputy Political Leader. Prime, a Barrister at-Law was appointed Senator by the NDC after contesting the Carriacou and Petit Martinique seat and losing by six votes to Foreign Affairs Minister Elvin Nimrod of the ruling New National Party (NNP) government.

The delegate was identified as Teddy Victor, the current Chairman of the St. David's constituency branch of the NDC party. A source told GRENADA TODAY that the move by Victor came just before the Convention took a break for lunch. He spoke of the Chairman of the proceedings taking a decision to give the delegates on the floor an opportunity to speak on any issue when Victor got up to address the Convention.

"He (Victor) got up and say that he has something to say that is burning his heart and so they gave him the chance to speak", the source said. Victor is said to have told the meeting that Shadow Finance Minister Nazim Burke should be given the post of deputy political leader because he is intelligent and capable.

Burke is the Parliamentary Representative for the St. George North-east constituency and also Public Relations Officer (PRO) of NDC. GRENADA TODAY was told that the suggestion by Victor did not go down well with the rest of the delegates who hauled insults at him and accused him of attempting to bring division in the party.

"They (delegates) especially those from Carriacou started shouting out, "no way, it's Prime time", in reference to George Prime. One of the leading delegates from Carriacou, former U.N diplomat, Michael Caesar accused Victor of trying to introduce into the congress party the same thing that he helped Prime Minister Keith Mitchell do to ex-Prime Minister Herbert Blaize within NNP. Victor is known to have supported Mitchell, then General Secretary of NNP to move against Blaize and unseat him for the political leadership of the party at a convention in 1989.

Mitchell and Victor parted companies a few years later with the latter moving over to the Congress party. In the face of Victor's proposal, Burke reportedly reacted immediately in attempting to defuse the situation by announcing that fighting over the post of leadership is not necessary at this time since leaders will emerge. The source said that Burke told the meeting that the goal now is for all supporters to do more ground work within their own constituency in order to strengthen the base of the party.

This newspaper understands that Victor also made the suggestion at last Tuesday's meeting when a slate of candidates was selected days before the party was to meet in Convention but his suggestion was turned down. Meanwhile, there were no major changes in the new NDC executive that was elected on Saturday, the first day of the convention. Opposition Leader Tillman Thomas was returned unopposed as Political Leader with Prime remaining as his Deputy.

Parliamentary Representative for the Town of St. George, Peter David retained the post of General Secretary while Burke holds onto the PRO post. The new assistant PRO is Kenrick Fullerton, Parliamentary Representative for St. Andrew's South-east who replaced Ann Peters. Political activists Glen Noel, Yvonne James and Cecil Marquez are the Assistant General Secretaries with responsibility for the North, South and West zones respectively.

Parliamentary Representative for St. George's South Glynis Roberts is now the Treasurer. She replaced Dr. David Lambert who did not seek re-election. The Recording Secretary is Roslyn Spencer, her assistant is Janel Harford while Flavian Antoine is the Labour Relations Officer. The NDC controls seven of the fifteen seats in parliament.