Commentator says Lovell’s senate move is “bad optics”
Antigua Observer
Two regional commentators have said that Harold Lovell’s recent appointment to the Senate might not be in the best interest of the United Progressive Party (UPP).
St Kitts & Nevis’ Former Minister of National Security and Tourism, Dwyer Asptaphan said the decision to remove Senator Anthony Stuart and replace him with Lovell, who serves as the party’s leader, gives the UPP a bad image.
“It certainly is creating a lot of interest, not just in Antigua & Barbuda, but in the rest of the region. And, the impression we get from a distance… is that it is a party that is not comfortable with itself right now and is having some internal friction right now.”
Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Arizona State University, Dr David Hinds agreed. He noted that while having Lovell in Parliament as political leader might give him more sway with the electorate, the party’s approach was all wrong.
“The party could have waited and eased Mr Lovell into the Senate rather than so rashly doing it because it’s an injustice to Mr Stuart who was so suddenly removed to accommodate the leader,” he told Sunday’s Big Issues.
“It smacks of a certain kind of ‘leaderism’ and a sense that the king is crowned and he must now sit on the throne.”
Dr Hinds said the change suggests that the UPP had forgotten about its public image and how its latest move would play out in the minds of people who are hesitant to join the UPP.
Dr Hinds also noted that, to his memory, Lovell is the only leader of an opposition party in the region to have been chosen from among those without a seat in Parliament.
“There may be one or two cases, but generally what political parties have sought to do is to fuse leadership of the party with parliamentary representation. That makes it easier, it is much more democratic.”
The two panellist also agreed that Lovell was an unconventional choice for UPP leader.
“For me, it is unusual for someone who is not an elected parliamentarian to be occupying the leadership of the party. I’ve seen it happen before, but I don’t know if it is the best thing,” Dr Hinds said.
“Mr Lovell has been in Parliament a few times and has been defeated. I don’t know if the UPP has critically assessed whether Mr Lovell is electorally recoverable.”
Astaphan said given that both former Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer and MP for St Phillips South, Wilmoth Daniel have elected not to run for office again, MP for All Saints East and St Luke, Joanne Massiah, might have been a better choice.
Massiah campaigned for the leadership against Lovell but pulled out shortly before the convention, citing unfair democratic practices.
Hinds questioned the party’s rationale and whether the UPP may be sending a message that Massiah is not up to their standards.
The duo also spoke to the cancellation of Joanne Massiah talk show on Crusader radio last week. The two-hour programme, Setting the record straight – with MP Massiah was removed from the airwaves. Despite the cancellation Lovell said the UPP was not moving to silence Massiah, but to instead maintain the integrity of the station’s programming.
Dr Hinds said, once again, that the party’s decision did not play out well in the eyes of the public.
“There is obvious linkage between her being pulled from the radio programme and her having some kind of rift with the new leader, he said.
“If in the eyes of the party this programme was getting out of hand, then the party obviously needs to deal with that issue. But when in the process the casualty is a person who is an independent voice; someone who may not be comfortable with the new leader, then you’re really creating bad optics and you’re engaging in bad politics.”
