By Tahna Weston
The United Progressive Party (UPP) is expected to formally announce the name of its candidate to contest the St Peter seat in the pending by-election today.
Last Thursday after the official funeral service and burial of the former constituency representative MP Asot Michael, the government issued a media statement announcing Tuesday, January 14, 2025 as the date for the by-election. Governor General Sir Rodney Williams will issue the Writ of Election today, while Nomination Day has been set for December 31.
Following the announcement Leader of the Opposition Jamale Pringle had indicated that the party would meet last Friday night to chart the way forward.
Speaking exclusively with Observer, Chair of the UPP D Gisele Isaac said there are some issues which must first be addressed before the candidate is revealed.
“Yes, we had that meeting [Friday] evening and decisions were made and we have some constitutional housekeeping to take care of and we’re going to take care of that and we expect that by Monday morning you will have the formal announcement of the candidate for the by-election in St Peter,” Isaac said.
The by-election will determine who will replace Michael as the parliamentary representative for St Peter. Rawdon Turner, who ran in the last election on the Antigua Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) ticket, amassed 899 votes. Tevaughn “Peter Redz” Harriette, who was the UPP candidate, received 601 votes.
Isaac said the party has been preparing for the by-election, even before the date was announced.
“No, it’s not possible to be caught off-guard in a situation like this. I mean, everybody knows that from the time MP Asot Michael passed, we had 120 days to a by-election, so we were not caught off-guard. We have been doing a lot of work, both the branch and the leadership.
“So we have had to work slowly and carefully and be satisfied now that we can go ahead and release the name of the candidate on Monday. It’s not like a general election that you can really spring on us, you know, so we knew the timeframe that we were working with and we were very, very conscious of it,” the UPP chair said.
Historically, St Peter has been a constituency that has voted for the Labour Party for decades. But is Isaac bothered by this? She said she is very cognizant of this fact, adding that anything can happen in an election and that the UPP is not ruling anything out.
“You can imagine that St Peter is a challenge. It has always been red…Well, I’m not a person who believes in predicting outcomes of elections. All I can say is that anything is possible, and I think the last election showed us, and especially the Antigua Labour Party, how much it’s possible with a very dissatisfied public.
I thought last election that they got quite a scare. We know they got a scare by their reaction afterwards and since. They had boasted that they were going to take all the seats and they ended up with a majority of one,” Isaac said.
Michael had represented the St Peter constituency for decades, running as an independent candidate during the 2023 General Election. He amassed 2,137 votes.
The 54-year-old MP was found stabbed to death in his Dry Hill home on November 5. The alleged killer, Alexta Francis, a 27-year-old resident of Golden Grove, is on remand awaiting his committal proceedings.
Wow! Asot represented St Peter constituency since he was four years old!!
peter reds got 541 votes last election