Last Sunday’s Convention by the main opposition New National Party (NNP) ended with the “Caretaker Candidate” for St George North-west Adrian Joseph emerging as the biggest victor in the event.
Joseph, the former public officer and considered as one of the most wealthy candidates of the party for the upcoming general election, landed the position of Chairman while one of his closest allies attorney-at-law Dylan Charles ended up with the very important position of General Secretary of the party.
Another close associate of Joseph, medical doctor Dion Forrester was also voted onto the executive as one of the Floor Members, and was seen introducing Joseph as the person who was identified to replace former Prime Minister Keith Mitchell as the successor for the St George North-west Constituency.
The only comfort for the Political Leader Emmalin Pierre is that she had retained the position without any challengers for the time being.
The cosmetic changes in the NNP National Executive will see Keith Mitchell still remaining as the dominant political figure in the party.
Closing on fast at age 80, the former Prime Minister is lacking the energy to engage in political hustling on a daily basis as in the 80’s and 90’s and even up to the 2018 general elections.
THE NEW TODAY believes that Keith Mitchell will use Adrian Joseph as the surrogate to set the agenda at meetings of the National Executive.
The other enforcer of the Keith Mitchell agenda will be his most trusted Lieutenant Gregory Bowen who continues to remain as Deputy Chairman of the party.
The former Prime Minister is known to be using one of his brothers to go around the various constituencies in order to keep them in check and under his control.
The veteran politician is no longer going around the country as often as he did but using the brother to pass on the instructions as to what the NNP Caretaker candidates should do in their constituencies.
However, these persons lack the knowledge to know that the former Prime Minister cannot guide the process to be undertaken as he was never a key strategist in the NNP political set up.
Over the years, Keith Mitchell was kept in office as he was surrounded by several persons who understood the local political ground and helped to guide the NNP Ship to victory in general elections.
These people are no longer around Keith Mitchell due to his own treatment of them and the NNP is no longer benefiting from their political wisdom, guidance and know-how.
The Keith Mitchell stranglehold on the NNP was seen during the Convention over his many utterances.
It is noticeable that it was the former Prime Minister and not the current Political Leader who reminded the NNP Caretakers that they have not been selected yet as Candidates.
It is a clear warning to the fifteen that any of them can still be removed and replaced by someone else to contest the seat for the party in the upcoming general election.
As the NNP gets the “House” ready to face the NDC Heart, Keith Mitchell must be conscious of the fact that he has more enemies in the political arena committed to “killing” him politically than even the current Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
There is a long list of persons who want to see the back of Keith Mitchell – not necessarily the end of NNP as a party.
The list can read something like this – Peter David, Chester Humphrey, Stanford Simon, Einstein Louison, Delma Thomas, Grace Duncan, Terry Forrester, Joan Webley, Archie Bain, Derek James, Clarice Charles, Joseph Gilbert, and Dr. Bert Brathwaite.
If the NNP loses the next general election, the blame should be put solely at the feet of Keith Mitchell.
His political manoeuvres have left the NNP without a credible candidate worthy of removing Dickon Mitchell as Prime Minister of Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique.
Keith Mitchell knows that if NDC had continued with Nazim Burke as Political Leader and into the 2022 general election, he would still be occupying the Sixth Floor in the Ministerial Complex in the Botanical Gardens.
As a so-called student of politics, Keith Mitchell should equally know that the NNP is asking the electorate in the upcoming general election the difficult question of voting out Dickon Mitchell for Emmalin Pierre who is not seen as a National Leader worthy of occupying the high office of Prime Minister of the country.
The better choice for NNP would have been Peter David – the current Leader of the Democratic People’s Movement (DPM) who was so ostracised by him that he was forced to quit NNP in December 2024 to form his own political party which he should have done more than 10 years ago.
The NNP will begin to find itself on the national political platform after two transitions take place – the first is to see the back of Keith Mitchell and the second one is Emmalin Pierre – to find a genuine leader to take the party forward on a particular political pathway.