UPP’s Primary Pandemonium: A Never-Ending Episode of Chaos
By Political Satirist
They say history repeats itself, and when it comes to the United Progressive Party (UPP), repetition is practically a party tradition. The party’s latest leadership skirmish feels less like a political process and more like an unending soap opera, complete with plot twists, dramatic exits, and plenty of finger-pointing. Once again, the UPP finds itself at a familiar crossroads: a primary that has devolved into pandemonium after a convention that sparked confusion.
For those who’ve been following, this is no new storyline. The UPP, much like its predecessor, the Progressive Labour Movement (PLM), has a knack for turning decision-making into a public spectacle. Power struggles that should be managed behind closed doors spill out into the open, leaving the electorate bewildered and the party scrambling for damage control. And while the drama might make for entertaining headlines, the fallout always leaves the UPP battered and bruised, losing precious ground in the political arena.
Unfolding Drama in St. John’s Rural South and St. Peter
It’s not clear what exactly is going on in St. John’s Rural South, but something is definitely brewing. Ahead of the primary, not one, but two candidates have already pulled out of the race. The reasons behind these sudden withdrawals remain murky, but rest assured, the real story will surface sooner or later. In the meantime, speculation is rife, and the lack of clarity only fuels the perception of chaos.
Over in St. Peter, the situation isn’t much better. Conflict appears to be simmering as the party struggles to select a candidate for the upcoming by-election. Add to that the fact that the UPP has yet to present the 10 candidates it promised over a month ago, and the picture becomes even more troubling. These delays and conflicts do little to inspire confidence in the party’s ability to organize itself, let alone govern effectively.
Damage Control vs. Progress
The problem is as old as the party itself. Every time the UPP gets caught in another round of infighting, it’s forced to hit pause on meaningful work. Instead of focusing on strengthening its organizational structure, advancing policies, or leveraging its pool of intellectual talent, the party spends its time cleaning up messes of its own making. Damage control becomes the default mode, while progress takes a back seat.
If the UPP could channel even half the energy it expends on internal squabbles into strategic planning, it might just live up to its name and actually progress. But alas, as Roy Boyke pointed out nearly 20 years ago before his exit, the party remains trapped in a cycle of self-inflicted wounds and missed opportunities.
Time for a Cultural Shift
Here’s the harsh truth: the UPP’s biggest enemy isn’t external—it’s internal. The culture of disorganization, blame-shifting, and reactive management has persisted for far too long. What the party desperately needs is a moment of honest introspection. And not the kind of introspection where everyone blames everyone else, but a real, soul-searching acknowledgment of the dysfunction that holds them back.
Breaking the cycle will require more than just promises of unity and reform. It demands a genuine commitment to changing the way the party operates. Strategic planning must become a priority, not an afterthought. Leadership decisions should be clear, transparent, and conflict-free—if that’s even possible. Most importantly, the UPP must stop airing its dirty laundry in public and start presenting itself as a united front capable of governing.
Breaking the Curse
Whether you call it a curse, a habit, or just plain stubbornness, the UPP’s tendency to implode during critical moments is a pattern that must be broken. The electorate is watching—and not with popcorn and excitement, but with growing frustration. People want a party that can lead, not one that gets lost in its own drama.
So, to the UPP, here’s a bit of unsolicited advice: the next time a primary or convention rolls around, try something radical. Avoid the confusion. Skip the pandemonium. Focus on the bigger picture. Because if you don’t, the party may soon find itself spinning so far out of control that it won’t be able to find its way back. And that, dear UPP, would be the ultimate tragedy.
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She has balls. Richard Lewis has none!!! She jumped before she was pushed. SPINELESS, SELFISH, ARROGANT Richie Lew is waiting ro be trampled under the MAN COW hoof. The CHAOS DEMON 😈 pricking him with her pitchfork and he taking the abuse
How dare you call for INTROSPECTION AND SOUL SEARCHING 😤 😒
Nothing wrong with UPP whatsoever. The problem is not internal!! Pringle told Burford just last week that the UPP is a formidable force and stronger than ever!!!
While Rome burns (I mean Antigua) the focus stays on the so-called tumult within the UPP.
DON’T KEEP FALLING FOR THESE TYPE OF ABLP DEFLECTIONARY TACTICS.
Instead, check your pockets, wallets and purses; bank accounts, housing, also the roads outside your homes, walk around St John’s (and then smell the drains in St John’s).
If all the above is fine with you ABLP supporters, then go ahead and keep the “bashment” upon the UPP.
“Breaking the Curse
Whether you call it a curse, a habit, or just plain stubbornness…”
Wilmoth Daniel of the STRIPPER POLE BUS fame already told Antigua that UPP is a party full a OBEAH!!
All Saints Crossroad put down Calabash etc etc
Only one way to reverse that self-inflicted CURSE
Like I’ve said to them already the U in UPP stands for united. That simple little fact they do not understand. Until they do they will continue to stagnate, a word to the wise is sufficient
@Brixtonian
You mean Jermaine purposely pull out the primary to cover for Gaston??? Wow!
That makes so much sense. Wonder if she get any of the 4billion from the belly of the plane 🤔
FBI done come fu Gaston since last year, so wonder how she get de money 🤔
Peter Redz still looking like a little boy 😆 🤣 😂
@ Truth Be Told, if the UPP party is full of obeah, then what is the ABLP full of? Nobody loves more witchcraft, obeah, evil—whatever it may called than the ABLP. ABLP candidates, especially the PM, travel faster than lightning to the different corners of the earth to sneak out obeah-man while claiming they are going on the business of the country.
Poor Brixtonian is the perfect example of UPP deflection, delusion and denial of reality. Every single member of the “leadership within the leadership” share his mental pathology.
Think about what he has listed as the reasons UPP will win despite clear chaos and incompetence within that dying organization:
1. check your pockets, wallets and purses, bank accounts: inflation, caused by external factors, is in decline and employment on the increase, with major new projects launched or shortly to launch: Nikki Beach, Marriott, UWI expansion, new Five Islands Primary etc etc. Record tourism arrivals. The taximen are happy. The tour guides are happy. Money is circulating. Hang in the city any night and see the buzz of commerce. All kinds of new business ventures. Major conferences to come starting next year, pumping even more money into the economy. And none of that even takes the boom on Barbuda into consideration.
2. housing: Really? Antigua went from the failed UPP housing projects at North Sound and John Hughes to over 1200 affordable homes in 10 years, with several new housing developments in progress. Affordable housing has never been more widely available at any other point in our history.
3. also the roads outside your homes: Gaston Browne, the action man who cares more about results than Harold Lovell niceties has lit a new fire of performance under Public Works. With the low debt to GDP ratio (62% down from 104% in 2014) that even Pringle (after the throne speech) said is excellent, the government is fully empowered to deliver on the promise to address 100 miles of road starting in the new fiscal year as well as many other priorities to the satisfaction of most citizens and residents. Think the soon to be fixed All Saints Road will save the crumbling UPP? Think again.
3b. No mention was made of water. Kudos to Brixtonian on that one. Water is a resolved matter by end of next year.
4. walk around St John’s (and then smell the drains in St John’s): Again. Brixtonian and the other UPP copium smokers think that politics is static. Urban renewal and tightening up all aspects of the management of St. Johns is high on the agenda. Another issue soon to be off the table. In any case, its not nearly as bad as you would claim. We all walk through St. Johns and the areas where this smell issue exist are very limited. People will vote on their actual reality, not your hyperbole. Keep that in mind.
Here is the ultimate problem with Brixtonian and the UPP’s kind of delusional reasoning: To believe that UPP can win by default based on issues which either are not valid criticisms (like housing) or will be rapidly addressed (roads and water) is a recipe for UPPset stomach after the next polls. Total UPP disaster on the horizon. That light at the end of the tunnel is not sunshine but a freight train. You just don’t know it yet on your copium high.
The day will come very soon when even Brixtonian and those of his psychopathology will wake up to the reality that there is no credible argument which could compel voters of Antigua and Barbuda to usher a crumbling party with an incompetent disengaged leader into the leadership of this land. And in that day of realization it will become all too clear that there is no time to fix the problems they tried to ignore with their daily delusional deflections.
Its a pity. Dead oppositions are not good for democracy. At the same time, this is no one’s fault but the UPP’s.
@June
Nice try, but you flap and failed to prove anything
You sound both DUNCE & DUMB!!! Your little lying opinion is not facts. However there is a RECORDING OF WILMOTH DANIEL STRIPPER POLE BUS BOASTING TO ANTIGUA PEOPLE THAT UPP PAID AN OBEAH MAN TO WIN THE ELECTION!!!
Turns out that UPP LOST!!! De obeah man right to tek dem money and clown 🤡 dem stupid libba 😆 🤣 😂
You thunk darkness ramp?? Ask Daniel bout de calabash
Thanks for that @ Keep it Real!
Well, according to you we are living in a UTOPIAN society here in Antigua & Barbuda where the laws that currently govern us are ideal; the social conditions are perfection itself, and also there’s no need for practical improvements anywhere.
I’ll give to you @ Keep it Real! Now that’s delusion at its finest from any ABLP supporter I’ve come across in a very long long time.
Never forget, when you try to set traps for others, you might trap yourself.
Remember, Ananci rope tie Ananci …
Gaston has taken Antigua to a new low. His followers exhibit their best efforts to emulate him. Just notice how they engage; it’s always about spewing nastiness, pretty much the way he does and that is seemingly the norm. I sometimes think that they even try to be crazy. Expect dishonest responses whenever the government is called out over its corrupt and illegal practices and failures to deliver what was promised prior to the elections. After almost 10 years, we are still hearing about contracting specialists from around the globe to assist with one of the four most important elements of our existence. Numerous RO Plants have been ‘CONSTRUCTED ‘ $?, we have absolutely no idea of the costs and the conditions remain as obtained since they realize we had a water issue. Antigua is as filthy and smelly as Cooks Landfill. Take a ride through any village and you’ll observe that we are farming trees and shrubs in our gutters and on sidewalks. The garbage containers are stacked with two-week- old refuse and Cartoon size rats being busted to pieces as they are too heavy to evade the traffic . One taxi operator said that he once drove his guests through a certain village and they actually wondered if it was a settlement for miners. The UPP with its disheveled structure is the least of my worries; at least, they are not responsible for my Social Security Benefits being received five weeks after the due date on a very regular basis.
@Brixtonian
Carmichael, what’s really going on in my brain? Are you simply embarrassed that you choose to deflect, whilst many defect? Are you truly being useful by the commentaries you while the damsel is in distress, both figuratively and literally?
Come on, bro! Two candidates pulled out of the primary, citing the same issues with the party’s leadership.
Don’t you think that this is serious matter? Have you nothing to say about that, none of it?
I’m disappointed.
Some a these color backra and Caucasian and syrians don’t care about Antigua , because their ancestors never shed blood in this soil, they have their septic tanks build right under the same side walk on high street and other areas with a sump pump hooked up on timer switch program to dump raw sewage water in the gutter at nights ,even on friars hill road the complex that house the credit union just dump it into the new gutter on friars hill road, if you stand by the stop light on high street at night you will see the water comes on gushing from a pipe spraying in the street, I wonder if it ever blast anyone? That’s the reason our town is stink, but our officials and workers at health center will tip toe around them, because of their prominence and political leverage.
@Eldread.
You’re being unfair and ungrateful to the Syrian community. Many so called local Antiguans don’t care about Antigua or ancestral ties based on the way they litter, do nothing to uplift the country’s development. They only feel a sense of entitlement. The Syrian community gives back to Antigua, provides sustainable employment for many. They’re all buried there at Holy Family Cathedral. When they abroad to study, they return to Antigua to live and work. You have no proof of the claims you’re making. Why do we always choose to bash people who have chosen Antigua as their home? Xenophobia is one of the sins that got Sodom and Gomarrrah into trouble with God.
@ Dave Ray, can you do me a favour please?
Could you rewrite your whole piece again? I didn’t understand what in hell you were trying to say or imply.
That was pure gobbledegook boss.
Your communications are normally far more superior than any other ABLP supporters – don’t let your grammatical standards slip Dave. Your the only competition I’ve got 😁
Btw, have you checked your pockets to see if you’ve benefitted under Gaston Browne’s tutelage?
Opps, my bad Dave, you don’t live here and you live under Trump’s governance … 😉
@Brixtonian
You meant to write “you’re the only competition I’ve got”? Not “your”
My first question to you should read, “What’s going on in your brain?” I wrote “my brain” accidentally.
@Brixtonian
You meant to write “you’re the only competition I’ve got”? Not “your”
My first question to you should read, “What’s going on in your brain?” I wrote “my brain” accidentally.
But you understood everything I said, albeit it was written during sleep and wake after midnight.
No political party has ever paid me. Perhaps you should check your pockets for the financial benefits of the UPP .
Oops, I’m sorry. I forgot that they are in financial dire straits.
Nice retort @ Dave Ray 👍🏾
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