A regional political figure has warned the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Grenada that it runs the risk of allowing Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell to be overworked and draining his energy level by the time the next general election comes around.
Speaking to THE NEW TODAY on Tuesday, the political activist said he had been picking up information from inside Grenada that some of the winning Candidates of the NDC are still relying on the popularity of the Prime Minister with the hope of winning their seats again at the polls.
He warned Congress that the dynamics of the next election will be vastly differing from the June 2022 polls and that its victorious candidates can expect to come under increasing pressure from the main opposition New National Party (NNP) to defend their stewardship in office.
The NDC won the seat of power 14 months ago when it took nine of the 15 seats at stake in the election.
The political figure identified the vulnerable constituencies for the ruling party as St Patrick East (Finance Minister Dennis Cornwall), St Patrick West (Foreign Minister Joseph Andall)and St John (Climate Resilience Minister Kerryne James).
According to the political pundit, the NDC is doing a relatively good job of governing the country but the problem it faces is a lack of political structures at the grassroots level to consolidate the gains of the victory at the polls 14 months ago.
He referred to the ruling party as having “a good architectural superstructure” within its fold but that “the house it is built on is the party’s structure that get the house there (in office) up to that level and it is resting on the party’s structure and the party’s structure now is extremely weak.”
He stated that the NDC currently lacks the political machinery which in political terms means “the superstructure” that is needed to win at the polls.
“It is the substructure below that has to ensure that the superstructure is in place.”
The political observer feared that in the face of a political hurricane, the NDC “building will crumble not because the superstructure is bad but of the sub-structure that is bad.”
In recent months, defeated Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell has been spending much time and energy reorganising the NNP support base to mount a serious challenge at the next general election.
According to the political pundit, who had predicted NNP’s loss at the polls, the NDC should come to terms with the fact that PM Dickon Mitchell cannot be depended upon like in 2022 “to do everything” to help candidates to win their seats.
“He can’t do everything. Last election Dickon won every candidate seat -people voted for Dickon. This time around it will be candidates under scrutiny. Every election is different,” he said.
“Next election coming up (Dennis) Cornwall has to defend, Tevin (Andrew) has to defend, Joseph Andall has to defend, Kerryne James has to defend, Ron Redhead has to defend.”
He said it is quite evident that PM Dickon Mitchell “is on top of his game” in running the country but the same cannot be said of many of the ministers in the Congress government.
He urged the NDC to remember that in politics a key element is to always organise party groups and have training for its members.
The political expert told the NDC that as a party it has to teach its activists what is expected of them and what we want them to do and their functions in terms of “how to conduct meetings, they (should) know how to do a good canvassing (of the Voters list) or continuous canvassing.”
He also urged the NDC to understand the need to have top flight political persons in place to organise party groups, and to engage in the process of “continuous guiding the political work.”