When the Prime Minister called a press conference today - it was his first meeting with the press since March. And some thought that he was going to announce the timeline for his departure. Well, he didn't, but he did discuss the plan for his succession.
He introduced an interesting model where a new party leader will be elected in March of 2019 - but that new leader will not automatically become Prime Minister. That new leader will have to wait in the wings until he decides to step down.
The PM explained that the party's run-up to electing a new leader begins in November of this year when constituency conventions will be held countrywide, followed by the selection of delegates for a leadership convention:...
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Thereafter we will fix a date for the leadership convention which I imagine would not be later than May. So that's what we're looking at. I should point out that under our party's constitution, when there is a leadership election, during the last parliamentary term of the incumbent, the leader so elected becomes in fact in the language of the constitution, leader elect and does not become leader operationally until the House is dissolved and the date set for the general elections. Unless of course that incumbent leader sooner resigns. And I have every intention of in fact demitting office, ah, after the convention has been held and the new leader chosen. In other words, I certainly don't intend to wait until the parliamentary term comes to an end."
If the UDP runs its full five year term, the parliament would not be dissolved until October of 2020, meaning that PM Barrow could step down in September of 2020, and still live up to the vague timeline he outlined today.
Email
Print