Worker's party leader 'shocked' by NDP members move to the PLP
By TANEKA THOMPSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
tthompson@tribunemedia.net
WORKERS' Party leader Rodney Moncur called an emergency party meeting last night after being "shocked" by news that ten executive members of the National Development Party left for the Progressive Liberal Party.
Mr Moncur said the memorandum of understanding, signed between the NDP and the Workers' Party late last year establishing an alliance for the next general election, had been broken.
For weeks the NDP had been in discussions with Bamboo Town MP Branville McCartney about possibly joining his newly formed Democratic National Alliance. The NDP was expected to soon make an announcement of their alliance with Mr McCartney's party but yesterday aligned with the official opposition in a surprising move.
Yesterday Mr Moncur said it appears as if the country's politicians were thrown into a tailspin by Mr McCartney's new party and view DNA as a real threat.
Development
"We've convened an emergency meeting of the central committee of the Workers' Party for tonight to discuss this new development. It is shocking because (Renward) Wells did not inform me of their decision however I received intelligence very early this morning that they were going to make the move," said Mr Moncur, telling The Tribune that Mr Wells confirmed this to him on Facebook before announcing it at a press conference yesterday.
He added that unlike former NDP leader Renward Wells, and the nine others who left with him, the Workers' Party will not give up the third party fight and "abandon" Bamboo Town MP Branville McCartney and newly formed Democratic National Alliance.
"We shall not be like our allies and abandon Branville McCartney and the DNA," added the social activist and former candidate in the Elizabeth by-election. "We have heard what Bran McCartney and the DNA are offering to the Bahamian people and we are excited by it.
"I'm extremely disappointed that Wells could not stand on philosophical grounds and that he has allowed himself to succumb to filthy (politics). . .it's a bad political decision and he's on the wrong track. We shall support Branville McCartney and DNA and the only way we don't support him is if he say he ain' want us.
"We were encouraging the NDP to go into the DNA, we were in the background pushing them and telling them whatever the political plums that the PLP and FNM is offering its not worth it."
Yesterday Mr Wells, former NDP hopeful for Clifton constituency Latore Mackey and eight other executive council members announced they had joined the PLP.
A few NDP members were against the move and will carry on the party's name.
Messrs Wells and Mackey said the philosophy of PLP leader Perry Christie and the party's interest in change and young blood spurred them to cross party lines.
The move comes a few weeks after the NDP said it had heard the nation's cry for a viable alternative to the PLP and the Free National Movement, parties that have been heavily criticised by the NDP.
"We believe that it is high time for another party, other than the PLP or the FNM.
"It is absolutely the right time to do it," Mr Wells told The Tribune in March.
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