The once dominant Grenada United Labour Party (GULP) formed by the island’s first Prime Minister, Sir Eric Matthew Gairy, is planning to contest all 15 seats in the upcoming general election.
This was disclosed to THE NEW TODAY by the self-styled Interim Political Leader of the party, Geoffrey Preudhomme who indicated that he will be vying for the St John constituency which his father the late Herbert Preudhomme had a stranglehold in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Preudhomme acknowledged that both the ruling New National Party (NNP) of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) under its newly elected leader, Dickon Mitchell have “more infrastructure in place” than GULP for a national poll but the party is not undaunted to face them in the contest.
He said the GULP started its rebuilding drive in January 2020 and the plan is to field candidates in all 15 constituencies on the island including Carriacou & Petite Martinique.
“That’s our plan. We are in a lot of negotiations,” he remarked.
According to Preudhomme, those persons who are driving the rebirth of GULP “are rebuilding the party in a Non-traditional way” because “we were dormant for so long.”
“We have to be multi-dimensional. GULP is a multi-dimensional party. It’s a modern party,” he said.
The GULP interim leader went on to say: “In rebuilding the GULP has done all the major organisational things that are required in getting it going, so we have to build in a non-traditional way because we do not have all the existing pieces and so you have to be always heavily in recruitment, continue to identify your base, connect people to people, people to groups, back it up to a larger organisation and that is what we have been working on the ground for.
“We have had our pre-manifesto on the ground – it is a working document which will collapse into our manifesto and that is the baseline for all the groundwork we have been doing. We are not like the other parties – we are building out as we go. We continue to build, recruit, organise and develop the party.
“We do not have the machinery and infrastructure, but everything we have, we have had to build. What we plan to do is play the hand we have. A party without resources has to be resourceful, innovative and creative and that’s what we have been – all the resources that we have, we have put it in strategic pockets to get the maximum impact we can get out of it and that’s what we have been doing.
“We have our pre-manifesto on the ground. That is the basis of our discussions. The GULP is a party of ideas. We can’t match these guys dollar for dollar – not yet,” he said.
The GULP was removed from power in Grenada on March 13, 1979 when the Marxist-oriented New Jewel Movement (NJM) of late Prime Minister Maurice Bishop staged a coup d’etat against Sir Eric, the first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean.
After the collapse of the Bishop’s People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) by a second bloody internal palace coup on October 19, 1983 and Grenada’s return to democratic rule of law, the GULP contested the 1984 poll and won a single seat through Marcel Peters in St. Andrew North-east.
The Party declined over the years and did not field candidates in the last two polls in 2013 and 2018.
Preudhomme conceded that the GULP machinery is not comparable to either the NNP or NDC but from 2020, it has been building enough organisations to take them into a national poll.
“While everybody thinks we are not working, we are working behind the scenes. Once we (find) our candidates, we will be able to roll – that’s our approach,” he said.
However, the GULP interim leader was a bit hesitant to answer if the party will be able to contest general elections if called within the next six months by Prime Minister Mitchell.
“That will be a good question mark,” he said after a lengthy pause and quickly added: “We will be ready and we would play with the team that we have – that is our approach.”
Preudhomme told THE NEW TODAY that he recruited a number of young people to work for GULP on his last visit to the island about three months ago and they are currently “engaged in our movement.”
“That is where we are – we are in for the long haul. We will always be part of the dispensation,” he said.
Asked about potential candidates, the GULP official indicated that the party had a few out in the communities and identified one as David James, a former student of the Grenada Boys Secondary School (GBSS) and former organist with the Roman Catholic Church in Beaulieu who is eyeing the St George North-east constituency.
“We have a couple guys in St. Andrew’s and we are working on St David’s and St Patrick’s. We are not going to release our candidates,” he said.
Preudhomme stated that additional information on the issue of GULP prospective candidates can be obtained from Indra Hall who is the party’s General Secretary and also Augustine “Shadow” David the Assistant General Secretary.
He said that he has been concentrating on building the international arms of the party to find the financial resources to compete in the local political arena.
On his own return home on a permanent basis to lead the GULP charge in the upcoming general election, Preudhomme could not give specifics but said that he will soon set up an office in St John and was hopeful that it will be up and running before returning home for good.
He disclosed that GULP has produced 12, 000 copies of its manifesto and is presently distributing them to Grenadians.
Preudhomme described himself as the Interim leader “and the guy leading the party into our general election”.