Sunday 28 July 2013

THE ALMOST 300 (and The Return of The PPP)



Seen Richard? No? Damn. I shoulda known.


The result was predictable, but it was amazing in two respects.

The A-Team (that’s what Allen Chastanet’s executive supporters are called) swept the executive, clearing everyone else out of the way. That picture of them looking over the Pitons in their promotional posters, that’s basically the executive.
If Flambeaus preferred a deal with the 'Devil' over you, what does that say about you?


But what was amazing was this.

Each and every one of them got approximately the same number of votes. In almost every contest where there were only two candidates, the A-Team won all but 99 of the votes. More than 250 of the 367 delegates in every constituency in the island, including King’s Castries North and Richard Frederick’s Castries Central, stuck together in a voting phalanx and ploughed their way to easy victory.

The King is dead! Long live the Chas!
If you’re a Labour Party higher-up, this should worry. Flambeau has been a broken thing since 1997. A thing that only John Compton could restore. Now, for the first time in history, the party has consolidated around something else. Not Chastanet, but teamwork. With the exception of the 99 and their disgruntled followers (‘the ghetto of Flambeau’s middle class neighborhood’ according to one party financier) Flambeau’s base is intact.

Labour’s base, meanwhile, continues to hemorrhage support based on the astute economic analysis that, “Kenny focking up de country.”

The Revenge of Compton may be the final victory of Mallet
Furthermore, the business end of  the party, which kept its head down for the last seven years, is back. The PPP, which was George Mallet’s middle class party before he agreed to play Robin to Compton’s Bananaman, was practically the political arm of the Chamber of Commerce types before Bananaman came up with the winning formula that kept St Lucia Flambeau, almost uninterrupted for 40 years . (Basically, the PPP was to the Chamber of Commerce what Sinn Fein was to the IRA.)With Chastanet as their poster boy, they may have finally open the window to achieve their secret impossible dream of having George Mallet be Prime Minister. With no Bananaman to steal the spotlight, the peasants are finally not on top anymore.

This could also be a problem for Labour as the middle class they built so assiduously takes hit after hit from this prolonged recession. With the local big money back on Flambeau’s  side, Labour needs to block off Flambeau’s road back to their former best friends, the Taiwanese, if they intend not to be completely outspent come the next election.

But of course, the astute observer would notice that Labour is remarkably quiet on Flambeau’s change of leadership. Secretly, they wanted Chastanet to win. Their simple calculation is the Chastanet has proven to be a loser in elections. They’re betting that he doesn’t dare attempt a by-election and Chastanet’s team probably agrees that this is way more trouble than it is worth right now.
New Kids on The Block: St Lucia's hot new boy band (...and Gail)

On top of that, word is that Labour has a plan for Flambeau in the lead-up to the next election. Some of the pieces on their chess board are already in play. The plan is designed so that anything Flambeau does, short of replacing everyone who had anything to do with the last government, will result in devastation for them, even before they arrive at the polls.

Wonder if Chastanet has any idea what he’s dealing with. He should. But does he know how serious it is? Or is he preparing for their attack? He should.

No comments:

Post a Comment