Another beauty queen tipped to replace Fife in West Kingstown

Is Michelle Fife, Unity Labour Party (ULP) candidate for West Kingstown in the 2010 general elections to be replaced in the upcoming poll by another former beauty queen?{{more}}

A party insider told SEARCHLIGHT on Tuesday that high-level discussions are being held with a well-known female, who has tentatively agreed to contest the seat for the ULP.

If this is the case, West Kingstown will join South Leeward and North Leeward as constituencies where two or more persons are battling to get the nod to contest the seat on behalf of the ruling ULP.

The party insider told SEARCHLIGHT that in addition to Fife, head of the Regional Integration and Diaspora Unit (RIDU) Ambassador Elsworth John still has an interest in contesting the West Kingstown seat for the ULP. However a spokesperson for John told SEARCHLIGHT

on Wednesday that John has “absolutely no interest in contesting the seat.”

In 2010, in the run-up to general elections, Fife beat out John, to secure candidacy, after a hard fought campaign among party members.

When she faced the national polls, however, Fife did not fare as well. Coming up against the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) Daniel Cummings, she was only able to muster 1,940 votes to Cummings’ 2,451.

Fife was crowned Miss SVG in 2001, while the person who, our source says, is being considered to replace her, also won a crown at the Victoria Park.

In South Leeward, lawyer Jomo Thomas and head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) Grenville Williams, also a lawyer, seem to be in a neck and neck battle for selection to contest the seat for the party. In addition to Thomas and Williams, there is the 2010 candidate for the ULP, David Browne who has not yet said he has bowed out of the race.

The battle for candidacy in North Leeward seems to be a straight fight between young lawyer Carlos James and former parliamentary representative Dr Jerrol Thompson. A third contender, teacher Lawrence Hooper, also threw his hat in the ring late last year.

In February this year, at the ULP’s convention at the Campden Park Secondary School, political leader Dr Ralph Gonsalves had warned potential candidates against creating confusion, especially in the seats the party lost in the last elections and which it believes can be reclaimed.

West Kingstown, South Leeward and North Leeward are three of the four seats the ULP lost to the NDP in 2010. The fourth seat is Central Kingstown, where no candidate has yet been named for the upcoming poll, constitutionally due by 2015.