Member of Parliament for St Andrew North-west Delma Thomas will today officially send in her application to become a full-fledged member of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
Thomas confirmed the move to THE NEW TODAY on Sunday night, a few minutes after addressing a packed hall at a ceremony in her rural Constituency to outline her future political plans after deciding to end her 15 year association with the New National Party (NNP) of ex-Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell who was defeated at the polls nearly a year ago.
“I declare that tonight that I will be joining the NDC,” said the MP in answer to a direct question posed to her on membership of Congress.
Her announcement came minutes after delivering a near one hour address at a place called “Papa D’s” which was attended by several of her supporters in the constituency and a host of high-level Congress members including Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
Among the high profile persons with links to NNP who were seen in the audience were former Minister of Legal Affairs Kindra Maturine-Stewart, as well as former NNP executive members and Senators in the Upper House of Parliament Kenny Lalsingh and Judd Cadet.
In her address, Thomas did not make mention of becoming a card-bearing member of Congress but pledged to give support to the administration which won the June 23, 2022 election on a Transformational Agenda for the country.
The relationship between Thomas and NNP became sour when her party boss Dr. Keith Mitchell voiced opposition to her acceptance of an invitation from Senator Gloria Thomas, the NDC Candidate whom she defeated to win the seat to join her in helping to bring benefits to the constituency.
It hit rock bottom when Thomas told Dr. Mitchell that supporters blamed him for the loss at the polls due to “political fatigue” and that he should make way for former Agriculture Minister Peter David to become the new party boss.
According to MP Thomas, the reaction of the ex-Prime Minister was that she should go out and “curse” David as the person who was seeking to mash up the NNP as a party.
The female parliamentarian recounted the breakdown of her relationship with the party, especially the lack of respect shown to her by Dr. Mitchell over her attempt to meet with the NNP executive to explain her side of the story.
She also made mention of efforts by the NNP to organise a meeting in her own constituency and to invite her in an apparent effort to try and humiliate her in front of the gathering.
MP Thomas told the gathering that she expected the NNP and its operatives to intensify their attacks on her in the coming days and weeks but she was confident that no finger can be pointed in her direction when it came to corruption and wrongdoing.
She disclosed that she took the decision to continue in the political arena since her work is not done at the Constituency level.
“I will continue to fight for the people and the people in St Andrew North-west,” she said.
Editor’s Note: Mr Judd Cadet was not at the Delma Thomas ceremony but was at a bar socializing with the pro-NDC Talk Show host Kem Jones.