A serious battle is brewing between rivals of the ruling New National Party (NNP) and the main opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the rural St. Patrick East constituency.
NDC supporters are accusing elected member of Parliament for the constituency, Economic Development Minister, Anthony Boatswain of breaking up a political meeting held Saturday night by his arch rival Joseph Gilbert of Congress.
Gilbert has accused Boatswain of being unprofessional in the manner in which he tried to disrupt the meeting held at La Mode in Sauteurs.
Boatswain appeared at the meeting and saw seen engaged in a heated exchange with a few supporters of Congress whom he felt were showing disrespect for him in "his territory".
According to Gilbert, the senior government minister came into the meeting and started verbally attacking a speaker, Joseph Grainger who at the time had addressed the issue of missing funds at the state-run Grenada Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) under Boatswain's management.
'The meeting was taking place in a fenced area, and Boatswain parked close by and walked into the meeting and started shouting to the speaker to account for money he (the speaker) stole,' said Gilbert.
Boatswain is said to have challenged Grainger on missing monies on the government Farm, Road project.
The government minister was also seen making hostile remarks to a top NDC activist in the constituency who had made some remarks about the absentee representation of Boatswain who was living in the distant St. George South east constituency.
According to the activist, certain expletives were hurled at him by Minister Boatswain who is seeking a third consecutive term to represent the constituency in Parliament.
There are reports that the presence of a combative Boatswain at La Mode encouraged NNP supporters who were in the vicinity of the meeting to hurl abusive words at Congress officials.
'The meeting was going on for about an hour without any problems even with NNP supporters there, until Boatswain showed up', Gilbert remarked.
Gilbert said he is concerned about the incident and the message that is being sent by the NNP.
'If I realise that the opposition is having a meeting and I happen to be passing I would go on my way. To stop and instigate a potentially explosive situation is very unprofessional', Gilbert said.
'I cannot understand what is going through his mind at this time. I can only conclude that it may be the pressure from the NDC why he's behaving in this manner', he added.
Boatswain has sought to downplay the incident by stating that he was merely passing when he observed a few persons assembled in a particular area.
According to Boatswain, when his supporters saw him they started to shout look at "my minister, look at my parliamentary representative".
He accused the NDC speakers at the meeting of making a number of untruthful statements about both the Prime Minister and himself and he thought it necessary to respond to the allegations.
On the issue of the missing funds at GIDC, Boatswain said that the issue had already been dealt with in court.
Investigations carried out by this newspaper indicate that the matter is still pending in court along with another issue involving the use of IDC funds to purchase toilet sets for a private individual.
Boatswain admitted that he took strong issue with Grainger's decision to speak about the missing funds at GIDC.
'When you come to have a political meeting people want to hear issues not personal attacks. When you come in a man village you have to behave yourself in a certain way so that you do not anger the people', he said.
In late February, a junior police officer was caught secretly tape-recording a private meeting of the National Executive of Congress.
