The New National Party (NNP) of Keith Mitchell is less than 72 hours away from holding its General Council meeting for delegates in which the most important issue is the date to be announced for its long overdue Convention to elect a new party leader.
It is clear that the faction within the party led by Assistant General Secretary Peter David is starting to show signs of panic as their destiny will be determined within a matter of weeks at the convention in which Dr. Mitchell will be submitting his own slate of Candidates.
A message from the David Camp was put out on Tuesday in which they expressed concern over the process used to select delegates for both the General Council and Annual Convention.
It reads in part: “…The deputy lead for St Patrick East Jalani Glean wrote to the General Secretary on the illegal way the delegates were chosen for General Council and convention. Doctor Mitchell brushed it aside at a party meeting saying he will deal with it privately.”
THE NEW TODAY is convinced that Dr. Mitchell has already taken a position on the issue in-keeping with his intention to crush Peter David and his small band of supporters who are trying to gain control of the party.
The Mitchell Camp would see the fingerprints of Peter David all over the origin and contents of the letter.
It is the modus operandi of this individual, never to come forward in the forefront but to always use someone to help advance and push his cause.
This is 2012 all over when David was a senior member of the Congress government of Tillman Thomas and also held the powerful position of General Secretary of Congress.
A faction within the NDC government unknown to the then Prime Minister committed the administration to Casino Gambling with a group of Mobsters from Chicago in the United States.
The then Prime Minister was able to obtain the letter which bore the name of not Peter David as the Minister of Tourism but Joseph Gilbert who was the Public Utilities Minister and not the Line Minister for Casino Gambling.
This was “the smoking gun” used by “Uncle Tilly” to force Gilbert to resign as a Minister of the Congress government.
The then Prime Minister had picked up reliable information from a friendly source that a certain sum of money was paid by the Chicago outfit to a particular “bag man” in the United States, holding diplomatic status to bring the funds into Grenada.
Joseph Gilbert was only the front man in getting involved in the Casino Gambling letter while the real culprit of the scheme stayed in the back and in the shadows.
Today, Mr. Glean is playing a similar role to Gilbert. The person behind the letter to the NNP General Secretary has often displayed cowardice and not willing to come out in the open to push his agenda.
It is the same mistake being made by Peter David in NDC that he is now doing in the NNP.
He was engaged in a battle with Tillman Thomas for leadership of the party and the rank and file members of Congress backed Uncle Tilly and as such this paved the way for his expulsion along with several others like Gilbert, Glynis Roberts, Karl Hood, Colin LaBarrie, Chester Humphrey, Pastor Stanford Simon and others at a Convention in 2012.
12 years later, Peter David has not learned his political lesson from that kind of maneuvering to reach the top of the political spectrum.
If Peter David wants to become the next Political Leader of NNP, he cannot afford to cross swords with Keith Mitchell but try and seek his blessings and endorsement to get into the position.
His political advisors have led him down a very slippery road of destruction as Keith Mitchell will devour him on the day of the Convention.
It is too late to call out “foul” on the process used by those running the NNP in selecting the delegates for the General Council on Sunday and to be followed by the Convention.
The Keith Mitchell/Gregory Bowen combination has already made all the major decisions on the path that the party will travel along for the next general election.
The “specially-selected” delegates will vote for Dwight Horsford as the new Political Leader and Emmalin Pierre as the Deputy Political Leader of the Party.
There will be no room for Peter David in the upper echelon of the NNP as Dr. Mitchell sees him as “a spoiler” and one who will engage in mischief making to sabotage the new leadership of the party.
At the moment, the former Prime Minister is lacking “a smoking gun” to expel Peter David from his party.
What will also be under consideration from a ruthless Keith Mitchell who does not like to leave opponents politically alive is the future prospects of Peter David to run on a ticket of the NNP for the Town of St George in the next general election.
This is now serious business as the NNP is signaling its clear intention to look at a much younger generation of leaders and Peter David will soon have to make a critical decision of whether the time has not eventually come for him to bow out of frontline politics in Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique.