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Was Bradley Laughed Out Of UDP Race?
posted (July 14, 2020)
By now, the fate of the UDP's Wilfred Elrington is well known. He is walking away from electoral politics after he finished last in the polling at Sunday's leadership convention with only 10 votes. And, tonight, we also know about Gaspar Vega - who has also announced that he will not run again.

Elrington made it clear throughout the campaign that he would not serve under either Patrick Faber or John Saldivar. And now Vega has made it clear he will not serve under Faber; he was a strong Saldivar ally.

And while they are casualties of the convention - what about President of the Senate Darrell Bradley? He had to pull out of the race for leader weeks before the convention because his candidacy was not generating much interest.

While his candidacy was improbable because he does not have, nor was he running for a seat in the house, on Sunday we asked the former two term mayor whether he was a victim of the UDP system. Here's what he said:

Jules Vasquez, reporter
"The impression I get is that you were laughed out of the race, the same way they are doing to Mr. Elrington to some extent. Is this indicative of the fact that something is broken in the culture of politics or certainly in the culture of the UDP that an honest broker such as yourself, a man on integrity can't be taken seriously in politics because you are not willing to play all the games that are involved in the political theater."

Hon. Darrell Bradley, President of the Senate
"Well I wouldn't say that. I would say that one has to get into politics understanding what it is. Politics is not a perfect system. Politics is a mean to an end, without politics you have chaos. I thought that the process of my candidacy was very useful because it gave me an opportunity to travel the country, to meet delegates, to hear what people at the base of the party really are concerned about and to be a voice to addressing those things, so that notwithstanding the fact that I pulled out I will continue to be an agitator for certain of the platforms that I think the base really resonated throughout this convention and I think that the country needed. So I wouldn't go to where you said in terms of taking the candidacy serious. I think that many people did take the candidacy serious and I think that I was able to provide a voice and a space and an option for people and I was able to lead the conversation in a certain way that I think the party needs to go if we are able to galvanize mass support."

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