With Grenada’s two main political parties showing signs of intensifying their activities, one local political activist with close ties to the ruling New National Party (NNP) is predicting that Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell is giving thought to a snap poll anytime from now.
“I think so,” said the female politician who had worked closely with the NNP for several years.
She told THE NEW TODAY that based on information coming out of the NNP camp, the Prime Minister is clearly thinking of an early poll.
“He has his hand on the trigger but he can’t pull. I tell you long his hand is on the trigger, he’s just waiting on the exact moment to call it. I always believe that he’s not passing March. The problem with him is that the variables he has is not right yet,” she said.
March marks the 4th anniversary of the last election in which the NNP was returned to power for the second consecutive time with a clean sweep of all 15 seats at the polls.
The activist warned that once March steps in, the opposition forces in Grenada can look out for PM Mitchell moving towards general election.
“Anything between now and March is election. No matter what you see going on there people have to be prepared,” she said.
According to the source, she is clear that PM Mitchell is presently “debating election” in his mind with a view to catching the opposition off-guard.
“He’s debating it strongly every day. It’s very clear that election is on the map.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has not ruled out that an election could be called by the Prime Minister within a matter of weeks.
A party insider told THE NEW TODAY that the newly elected leader of Congress, 44-year old Attorney-at-law, Dickon Mitchell has been engaged in heavy political work to put the party on a sound footing for the upcoming election especially in terms of candidate selection.
He said the NDC will not be caught offguard and will be ready for any snap poll called by Dr. Mitchell who is seeking a record 6th term in office as Prime Minister of the country.
The female activist who has been close to PM Mitchell for over a decade said she does not see the so-called entry of UK-based lawyer, Akima Paul-Lambert to take over the St Mark constituency from Tourism Minister Dr. Clarice Modeste-Curwen as a factor in the date for the holding of the upcoming election.
Speculation is rife that a so-called NNP Transition Team, headed by former Finance Minister Anthony Boatswain, has been engaged in discussions with Dr. Mitchell on his exit and handing over to Paul-Lambert, a former national calypso monarch winner.
She described the Paul-Lambert thing as “a red herring” by the NNP and does not believe that the attorney-at-law will leave her lucrative legal practice to return home, to dabble in politics.
“He doesn’t wait on nobody. He might like it (the coming of Akima) for fame but he won’t wait on her – he doesn’t do nothing based on nobody”.
According to the female activist, the surprised decision by Prime Minister Mia Mottley to call early elections in Barbados might also help influence the date of the next poll in Grenada.
“He’s gauging that. If Mia gets away with that substantially he’s going next – he’s gauging that, that’s him,” she said.
THE NEW TODAY was told that Prime Minister Mitchell is now holding regular sessions with a group including Speaker of the House of Representatives, Michael Pierre and President of the Senate, Chester Humphrey, and NNP General Secretary Roland Bhola to plot the NNP strategies for the upcoming national poll.
The source pointed out that Prime Minister Mitchell is presently reading the political mood in the country and knows that he has a fight on his hand in the upcoming general election against Congress under the leadership of Dickon Mitchell.
“He read it long, he recognise that it (the political atmosphere) is not in his favour – politically he is going down and he has a last chance. That man wants another 5 years inside there.
The NNP insider told THE NEW TODAY that PM Mitchell knows that if he loses the next election that at 75 it marks the end of his long political career on the national stage.
She is also predicting a bitter end for Dr. Mitchell whom she accused of trampling upon many persons over the years who were once close and loyal to him politically in the country like former Ministers Grace Duncan and Joslyn Whiteman.
“He’s going to have a bitter end. There is nobody that has left that man or get away from him or fall out with him that has anything good to say about him – not one,” she remarked.
Duncan, a former Deputy Prime Minister in the 1995-99 NNP administration was fired amidst reports that she had leaked Cabinet information to the local media.
Dr. Mitchell had promised to give details about the leak but 23 years later he has never done so.
In the case of Whiteman, a significant financial contributor to the NNP in the general elections in the 1990’s, the bitter fall-out saw the ex-government minister lining up with the opposition in the 2018 poll.