The slow-mo leadership challenge at the UBP continues, with a meeting last night of MPs and the Party Chairperson ending with no definitive resolution.
I said a few days ago, when the current challenge became public, that the MPs should end the uncertainty and either replace Wayne or not. I still believe that to be the case, particularly with an election almost certain to be called within the next 2-3 months, however now that the process has been set in motion, a couple more days isn't going to make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. It's important to get this one right.
The past few years have seen any number of leadership challenges in both the PLP and UBP, which probably is ultimately a good thing as the parties work through some albeit messy internal matters, with the UBP trying not to do it in (too) public of a way. Watching the Jennifer Smith/Alex Scott/Ewart Brown battle play out publicly made for great spectator sport but plenty of hard feelings.
What UBP Chairperson Shawn Crockwell said today is true: the UBP's leadership process is more difficult as an Opposition, because their numbers are smaller than when they were the Government. With a disproportionately low number of seats versus popular vote (down to 13 after Jamahl Simmons' departure) out of a reduced Parliament (single-seats took it to 36), the numbers involved in selecting the leader are quite small and in the absence of a clear successor it makes it hard for one person to command a meaningful majority.
Unlike the PLP which had a clear potential challenger to Jennifer Smith (current Premier Dr. Brown), the UBP don't have a clear front-runner but a number of people who would be good leaders - if they wanted the position (something that is often overlooked when putting forward the potential successors).
And as we saw with the PLP and Dr. Brown, dislodging a party leader can take time and can need a gentle touch, not brute force as Dr. Brown's wing tried in 2003 to poor results.
While the results under Wayne's leadership haven't been great, he is a longstanding and valuable member of the party who deserves to be treated with respect and dignity in any challenge to his leadership.
So while some have suggested a single challenger should step up and directly challenge, that's not really the UBP way - and if there is one lesson that the UBP MPs probably learned over the past few months, it's that if someone feels mistreated then they can cause a whole lotta hurt (Maxwell Burgess).
So in my mind they're rightly moving slowly but deliberately towards resolution, which while seen as a 'split' may not be that absolute.
People who are drawn to the UBP tend to be collaborative not combative (versus Dr. Brown's adversarial approach both inside and outside of his party); they work to build consensus even on controversial topics - evolution not revolution - an approach that I think tends to ultimately produce the best results.
Collaboration is the culture of the UBP since its inception, it had to be in drawing together historically divergent groups; the PLP's more monolithic base proposed revolution while the UBP's coalition proposed more gradual change ("Make haste slowly", a UBP leader's phrase that Alex Scott took a liking to in his waning weeks).
So I'm not entirely surprised things are unfolding the way they are. It's taking a little longer than some would like (although Wayne never had a strong position), and does offer the opportunity for the press to feast on the apparent indecision (even the so-called "UBP-owned" Royal Gazette).
But I fully expect this to resolved in the next several days with a new leader, and if that's what it takes to keep Wayne on board as a candidate for the next election then it's worth it.
