Who will lead the PUP? Well by this time tomorrow we should have a better idea - of at least who is interested in the job. Tomorrow December 15th at 5:00 pm is the deadline for the submission of names for executive posts and tonight it looks like three main contenders are going ahead. They are Cordel Hyde, Francis Fonseca and John Briceno. Fonseca is the wild card whose sudden re-emergence has caught everyone off guard. On Friday he told us that he was considering an offer to accept a nomination from a block of constituencies led by Julius Espat's Cayo South. Today we tried to tried to find out whether he had made a decision either way, but he did not answer our requests for a comment. But, the de facto organizer of his campaign Julius Espat told us that Fonseca will accept the nomination.
Next is Cordel Hyde. He today confirmed that he will be nominated as leader tomorrow.
Same for the John Briceno camp. Today he received an endorsement from the Northern Caucus. The release says, quote, "The Executive and members of the Caucus are…pleased to give full support to the candidacy of … John Briceño."
The release adds, quote: "Briceño best exemplifies those qualities needed to unite and inspire Party supporters; (and) to once again bring victory to the People's United Party."
So, it's looking to be three way race, which puts very many variables in play - so much that it could force an alliance between two camps. The natural match would seem to be between the two candidates who were both members of the G-7 in 2004 and the G-11 in 2015 - that's John Briceno and Cordel Hyde, but, from what we are told, there is no alliance presently in the making. Going forward, though, things remain very fluid.
We'll let you know tomorrow night who put their names in for the executive posts and who didn't.
Email
Print