Pastor Hood

A full-fledged clergyman has decided to contest the St. George South-east seat for the main opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the upcoming general elections. He is Pastor Carl Ignatius Hood who is associated with the Pentecostal Assembly of Grenada.

Pastor Hood is attached to the Pentecostal Church in St. Paul's which is in the heart of the constituency that is currently held by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture, Gregory Bowen.

A party spokesman told GRENADA TODAY that the religious figure is virtually assured of the candidacy since all of the NDC party groups in the constituency have endorsed him as the candidate."It is now only left to the Executive of the party as stipulated by our constitution to ratify Pastor Hood as our candidate", he said.

"I do not anticipate any problems (from the Executive) and you can say with full confidence that Pastor Hood will be going forward as the candidate", he added. In speaking to Grenada Today on Monday, the clergyman admitted that his decision to re-enter frontline politics has brought a certain level of discomfort amongst his followers in the church.

However, he said that the hierarchy of the church is not opposed to him taking the "bold step" to get involved in politics at the national level. According to Pastor Hood, the reaction from the top is that if that was his "calling" then he needed to fulfill it.

In 1990, Pastor Hood was unsuccessful in his bid to win the St. George North-west seat for NDC against Prime Minister Mitchell.
However, this time around, Pastor Hood is confident of bringing home the seat for Congress in the next general election.

According to Pastor Hood, the ruling New National Party (NNP) has done everything possible to defeat themselves at the poll. He pointed to the constant charges of corruption and mismanagement of the country's affairs that have been levelled at the Keith Mitchell-led administration.

A few weeks ago, Pastor Hood wrote a letter in this newspaper critical of Prime Minister Mitchell and his association with imprisoned fraudster, Eric Resteiner who is serving a seven year jail term for multi-million dollar mail and wire fraud.

Pastor Hood also said that he detected a desire among the people of Grenada for regime change. His candidacy has resulted in the NDC now having nearly all its full slate of fifteen candidate for the next general election.

The completed list is:-

Tillman Thomas - St. Patrick East
Joseph Gilbert - St. Patrick West
Alleyne Walker - St. Andrew North-west
Ingrid Rush - St. Andrew North-east
Sylvester Quarless - St. Andrew South-west
Patrick Simmons - St. Andrew South-east
Michael Lett - St. David's
Glynnis Roberts - St. George South
Peter David -  St. George's Town
Carl Hood - St. George South-east
Nazim Burke - St. George North-east
Ingrid Jackson - St. George North-west
Michael Church - St. John's
George Prime - Carriacou and Petite Martinique
St. Mark's - Undecided