Candidate’s poster sparks controversy in campaign

Campaign posters mounted by one of the hopefuls for the candidacy of the ruling Unity Labour Party for the South Leeward constituency in upcoming elections have sparked some controversy in the campaign.{{more}}

The posters, bearing the image and message of head of the Finance Intelligence Unit Grenville Williams, have been criticised by supporters of opposing constituency hopeful, lawyer Jomo Thomas, many of whom have taken to the airwaves to voice their displeasure with the strategy.

ULP general secretary Julian Francis addressed the matter during his weekly radio programme on Star FM on Tuesday, saying the approach is not in keeping with the ULP’s style and he wants the posters taken down.

“My advice is that the potential candidates who putting up posters should desist from it. The posters should come from the person who is eventually selected as candidate. It is at that stage we should set up posters. It is wrong and not how we do these things, and the posters should be taken down,” Francis said.

South Leeward, along with North Leeward, were named by ULP leader Dr Ralph Gonsalves during the party’s January convention for having strong and potentially divisive candidate selection campaigns, with the Prime Minister cautioning against ‘basa-basa’ in the process.

Williams and Thomas are seeking the ULP’s nod to replace farmer David Brown, who lost to current South Leeward representative Nigel “Nature” Stephenson of the New Democratic Party in the 2010 general elections. In North Leeward, the potential candidates are former representative Dr Jerrol Thompson and lawyer Carlos James. They are seeking the right to contest against representative Roland “Patel” Mathews.