“… The movement can cause the NNP to lose support without necessarily winning a seat and the fear of what he can do might be enough”

Barbadian pollster Peter Wickham believes that the newly formed Democratic People’s Movement (DPM) of former Agriculture Minister Peter David will affect the main opposition New National Party (NNP) in the upcoming general election.

Appearing on The Ridealong programme on Tuesday night, Wickham who has done political polling for NNP over the years, said that the Movement will cause problems for NNP more than the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) of Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.

“The party that has the most to lose is the NNP – the NNP has the most to lose from Peter David. I think that the NNP ought to be afraid,” he said.

“I don’t believe that he (David) has power to do anything to the government – he has considerable power to do (damage) to the opposition (NNP),” he told the programme host Junior George.

According to Wickham, David who is the current Member of Parliament for the Town of St George does not even have to hold onto his seat but can deploy other candidates in other constituencies to affect the NNP at the polls.

“He can be a spoiler and he can do some serious damage to the NNP and he can essentially not even win his own seat but yet still that will be the damage he has done,” he said.

“A person in Peter David’s position doesn’t have a lot to lose – he has been in politics for a very long time, he is a household name, he has knocked around Grenada’s politics since the 1970’s to now.”

“My sense is the danger in Peter David is essentially you have a man who has all that experience in politics – a lot of people love him – and he really has nothing to lose – so my thing is he could go for brokes.”

“If that means that he does damage to the NNP then so be it – I think that is something that will make the Prime Minister (Dickon Mitchell) happy.”

“….I am not saying that Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell needs him to win (in the Town of St George) but I am saying that he can help strengthen Dickon Mitchell’s hand.”

DPM is an offs-shoot of NNP following the decision of David to resign from the party in December over the manner in which former Prime Minister Keith Mitchell allegedly manipulated the Convention to pave the way for Education Minister Emmalin Pierre to become the new party chief.

David had expressed interest in the top position which led to the veteran NNP boss leading a broadside against him including a call for him to go and form his own political party.

Wickham hinted that PM Dickon Mitchell can work out an accommodation with David to strengthen his hand in the upcoming general election due in 2027 for the latest.

“… If he (Dickon Mitchell) decides to do that – Peter David doesn’t gain a whole lot but what he does is that he damages the NNP,” he said.

Speculation is rife that the Grenadian leader will meet stiff opposition from party members and supporters on an accommodation with David as he is blamed for the collapse of the Tillman Thomas-led Congress administration in the 2008-13 period.

David was expelled from the party in 2012 along with some of his key allies following a protracted leadership battle for control of the government and party similar to what took place amongst warring factions that led to the collapse of the 1979-83 Grenada Revolution.

According to the Bajan pollster, he sees David’s DPM as strengthening the hands of Dickon Mitchell at the next general election and providing the Congress leader with the option of not having to contest particular constituencies like the Town of St George.

NDC insiders have told THE NEW TODAY that this is not on the cards as the party has done internal polling which shows that it can win the seat in the next general election.

Wickham is contending that given Grenada has 15 electoral seats that David can become a player if he wins 1 or 2 seats on polling day.

He said that if David retains the city seat at the polls then he can use it as “a bargaining chip” depending on the eventual outcome of the elections.

He recalled that in St Kitts, former Prime Minister Timothy Harris and his small party won a single seat and through negotiations with the other players emerged as the person selected to take charge of the new government.

A similar occurrence took place in St Vincent & The Grenadines in the 1970’s when the late James “Son” Mitchell won a seat in the Grenadines and emerged as Prime Minister as the other seats on the mainland was shared equally between the two Major parties.

Wickham does not expect the NNP to negotiate with him for a political arrangement in the lead up to the next general election to defeat Congress.

He said he had expected the new party boss, Emmalin Pierre to approach David after the Convention “and work out some kind of working arrangement.”

“All things considered she lost out the opportunity to work out an agreement with him so my sense is that she will not go back,” he told the programme host.

“I don’t think that the NNP damage could be fixed in terms of the Peter David scenario,” he said, adding that the party is trying to rebuild under new leadership but is also “losing members left and right” and that will be challenging for them.

According to Wickham, he does not get the sense that Emmalin Pierre is aware “of the hill that she is climbing” in the Grenadian political landscape.

“I haven’t heard anything from her to suggest that she is aware. You can’t fix a problem when you don’t see the problem,” he quipped.

Wickham said he believes that Pierre sees herself as inheriting “this grand party that is great that won all the seats three times … and the feeling is that I could just pick up where Dr Mitchell left off.”

“The fact of the matter is that what she has inherited is a lot of baggage and I am anxious to see how she is going to pick up and carry that baggage and right now I don’t get the sense that she sees it as baggage so she is performing as though she is the Leader of a party with considerable political strength.”

“I am not suggesting that the NNP is down now but I am just saying that the political strengths that they believe themselves they have, they really don’t have – it’s a new conversation in Grenada.”

Wickham pointed out that the biggest issue in Grenada politically at the moment is whether Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell can consolidate power for Congress given its victory at the polls in 2022.

“My feeling is that the beginning of that is unfolding. If he can consolidate it is going to be extremely difficult for the NNP to make its way back into office again and that’s something about which I worry,” he said.

Wickham also told the Ridealong programme that he does not see the Movement of David taking over the political space that is now occupied by NNP at the moment.

“If Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell demonstrates that he has very little interest in making any accommodation with the Movement. I think that essentially the Movement is in serious trouble.”

He reiterated that David on his own along with the rest of the candidates of the Movement can hurt the NNP and “do some damage on them” in an election.

“He (David) doesn’t need to win a seat to do that – the movement can cause the NNP to lose support without necessarily winning a seat and the fear of what he can do might be enough,” he said.

Ex-Prime Minister Keith Mitchell has already stated publicly that a vote for the Movement on Election Day amounted to a vote for Congress.

The Bajan pollster told the host that unlike his first impression of Dickon Mitchell as too young and lacking in experience in the days before the 2022 election, he now holds a different impression of the Grenadian leader.

He praised Dickon Mitchell for the manner in which he is handling the request made by the US government of President Donald Trump to station a radar at the Maurice Bishop International Airport (MBIA) to help monitor activities in Venezuela.

“My sense is that he is demonstrating a level of political intuition that I did not expect from someone who was in politics so recently,” he said.