How does the ABLP choose candidates? Explained in 60 seconds

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Political developments within the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) over the last few weeks have left some asking, ‘What is the process for becoming a candidate?’
OBSERVER media spoke to Mary-Claire Hurst, Chairwoman of the ABLP about the process. If you listen, she explains how a political hopeful can indicate their interest, who determines whether they are “suitable,” and who determines when to hold a primary in a constituency where two or more “suitable” candidates are determined to seek the nomination.
Here are some of the points she mentioned to OBSERVER media:

  • Interested party members must write to the secretary of their constituency branch; from there letters are passed on to the party’s secretariat, and then to the party’s executive.
  • It is up to the executive, not the branch, to determine the “suitability” of the interested persons and it is also up to the executive to determine what methods or criteria they will use to determine that “suitability”.
  • A primary is held in a constituency on the instruction of the party executive if and when the executive determines that there are two or more “suitable” candidates and “everything else has failed” when trying to select a single person to go forward.
  •  The executive’s decisions about candidacy can only be challenged at a party convention. The convention is considered the “supreme authority” within the party and in the periods between conventions the party executive acts as the supreme authority.
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