Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle says that interference by the Antigua Labour Party (ALP) Administration will not derail the United Progressive Party (UPP) as it readies itself for the next general elections.
Pringle was speaking in the wake of last Thursday’s primary in St. Peter, where MP Asot Michael attempted to cause confusion with allegations of financially assisting the candidate-elect, Tevaughn “Peter Redz” Harriette.
This claim was denied by Harriette, himself, as well as Pringle and Political Leader Harold Lovell.
Further, Pringle says the UPP is not perturbed by any misconceptions that Michael might have created in the minds of people who already do not support the Party.
Over the weekend, another dimension was added to MP Michael’s drama, when the ALP leader, Prime Minister Gaston Browne, confirmed that his place on the next elections slate is not secure.
Browne referred several times to the possibility of Michael being charged for criminal offenses, which would make him ineligible for re-election. He says he has already had talks with ABS-TV anchor Shermain Jeremy about replacing Michael, although he considers his own son, Andron Browne, “a great candidate” for St. Peter.
However, residents expressed that they believe the Prime Minister would welcome charges being brought against MP Michael, and they ask if he is actively furthering such an outcome.
They predict that Browne will jump at the chance to entrench another member of his family in the Cabinet, possibly in the capacity of Minister of Works.
Sources say that Michael resisted the candidacy of Harriette because he knew it would greatly undermine his chances of remaining on the ALP slate, and would make him even more vulnerable to the whims of the Prime Minister.
Browne had Michael stripped of his Cabinet appointment in 2017, immediately after he was detained for questioning by London’s Metropolitan Police. Michael has always maintained that he was never arrested.
He resigned from the Cabinet after winning the St. Peter seat in the 2018 elections, following the release of a recording that implicated him in a scandal involving one of the Labour Party’s investors, Peter Virdee Singh.
