Rural East Branch chooses Maria

Maria Bird Browne – the wife of Prime Minister Gaston Browne – has been recommended to be the candidate to contest the seat in St John’s Rural East in the next general elections.
The decision was made by the constituency branch executive of the Antigua Barbuda Labour Party following a CADRES poll conducted in October this year.
The poll, headed by pollster Peter Wickham, was held to determine the most suitable candidate to contest the Rural East seat.
The Rural East branch announced the decision in a letter, which OBSERVER media obtained, to the party’s executive following the most recent meeting of the executive.
In that letter, the Chairman of the branch office, Claudette Mason, said Michael Freeland tied with Maria Bird Browne for first place in the overall poll.
The candidate with the second highest support was Shenella Govia, followed by Alincia Grant in third place.
Mason said all prospective candidates were also interviewed about their motive for running, their personal integrity and ability to raise funds to pursue constituency activities.
In that segment, Bird Browne emerged as the front runner, followed by and Grant.
Mason also reported that during the interview with the candidates, it was found that two of them had integrity challenges and they were eliminated on those grounds.
This resulted in a choice from Bird Browne, Govia and Grant who were ranked in positions one, two and three respectively.
But Govia subsequently withdrew from the process and pledged her support to Bird Browne.
In the circumstances, the Rural East branch executive issued its recommendation to the Central Executive, that Bird Browne, is to contest the seat for the labour party in Rural East at the upcoming general elections.