A storm is brewing within the United Progressive Party — not loud, but deep, unsettling, and impossible to ignore.
What began as quiet whispers has hardened into something far more serious: a party wrestling with itself.
Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle had, by multiple accounts, already made his decision. After internal polling painted a bleak electoral path, he was prepared to step aside — a calculated sacrifice meant to steady a drifting ship.
But the moment fractured.
Ambition collided with hierarchy. Agreement gave way to resistance. And before the party could speak with one voice, the silence broke — leaked, exposed, undone.
Then came the backlash.
From the ground, from supporters, from those who warned that stepping down might cost more than leadership — it might cost survival. And so, just as quickly, the decision reversed.
Pringle stayed.
But something shifted.
Inside the party, doubt lingers like a shadow that refuses to lift. Confidence has thinned. Questions now echo louder than answers — about direction, about leadership, about whether victory is still within reach.
One departure, then another hesitation. Not always spoken publicly, but felt unmistakably.
Because beneath it all lies a harder truth: politics is not sentiment — it is survival.
Now the UPP stands at a crossroads, caught between loyalty and reality, between unity and fracture. What unfolds next may not only shape an election — it may redefine the party itself.
And perhaps, long after the ballots are counted, the real battle will still be within.
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I shed tears. My Family is UPP but to my surprise I hearing different discussions in reference to voting this general election. My Mother , Father and two siblings are very upset because UPP is very stubborn and not listening to the CRIES of supporters. The discussions are as follows.
Why Jamale Pringle and D.Gisel Isaac are not listening to the CRIES of Their Supporters ?
We cannot win with you Guys at the Helm. Listening to Browne and Browne on Saturday, UPP is 15 percent in the POLLS. We cannot go into this election with these numbers. It is NOT too late, Please give someone else a chance or you will lose 6 votes in my house.
Please be guided accordingly.
ANR and ABLP are really working as a tag team on UPP, makes me wonder what promises were made. God is in the midst of everything and wicked will be punished when all is said and done
Who the choose the Candidates for UPP ? Malaka Parker should NOT be running on UPP ticket. She is an OPPORTUNIST. Hon. Gaston Browne said She wants $15,000 to work at UN for ABLP. She was ABLP move to UPP to DNA and now back to UPP. This woman is hanging Her mouth where She believes the soup is falling.
What a TRASHING Malaka will receive in ST.John’s Rural North.
Oh please..
For years this inept administration has ignored the warning of the people, and by extension has ignored the corruption and crime problems in Antigua, and now here we have this out of touch administration talking about killing the young if they don’t stop communicating crimes.
😂
This same threat came after this same incompetent government allowed them to grow and smoke ganja like it’s free lunch, and after he GB told these same gangstas to hide their illegal guns.
Arse backwards people they are.
So yes, UPP has some disagreement like in every relationship, but what this incompetent administration has done to the islands in just the last six years is down right criminal (literally).
Half of their arse should be brought before the courts, but here we are talking about UPP little issues like the sky is falling.
Well the sky has already fallen on Antigua you idiot..just look around you. You have lost the youth, and they are out killing each other with impunity.
Whenever in Antigua’s history that so many young people are murdered and gone missing, when? The pass six years alone has been a stress on the adult population in Antigua, and the slack laws and punishment policies has been a big ole catalyst for the crime.
When you give criminals a slap on the wrist, that same criminal think they are actually in control, and this government has been one of the softest administration ever on crime, ever.
Criminals go untouched in this island..just look at the car theft case, just look at the 3 measly years the youth who killed the Syrian got..
And all now, what happened to the case where the 5 boys raped the lady in the bushes?
These are just a few incidents out of dozens, and the UPP is what this dumb writer is concerned about?
Write what you may, but this just further prove that this administration is tone def and doesn’t give a crap about the working people of Antigua, because people are not safe at home much less going out doing their daily routines.
Bloody idiots.
I’m just sick of these blind fools..Antigua is wasting away you idiot.
Today I listened to ADRIAN ( Observer Radio ) JUICY JOAN and FRANZ ( Progressive Radio ). They all sounded LOW KEY and DEFEATED . NO spark at all. I wonder if defeat is steering Them in The face. UPP CANNOT enter a GENERAL ELECTION with 15 percent in the polls. UPP do something quickly before the BIL RED MACHINE ROLL OUT.
ABLP will win all 17 seats.
The ONE AND ONLY DULY ELECTED LEADER OF THE UPP IS THE HON LARS JAMALE PRINGLE
The UPP members can’t work together so they depart or defect in large numbers but some people genuinely think they can run a country better than the existing government? I think the UPP can run the country INTO THE GROUND better than the ABLP and that’s NOT in my best interest so my fencing sitting days are over and I’m voting red for only the second time in my life as are several of my neighbors in St. Johns Rural North. Sorry Malaka.
When Pringle resigns and Lewis takes over, we will see if he can bring real unity to the UPP and not fake news unity that no one in their right mind really believes.
FACTS
The UPP is not in power today because it did not listen to its supporters.
From 2004 to 2016 the UPP supporters were crying out for inclusion. The party pitched a big tent and captured the ABLP supporters who undermined the UPP administration.
UPP failed to put its supporters in key areas of governance to unsure their plan was carried out and keep a watchful eye foe sabertors.
In opposition the UPP is even more stubborn. As senior members exit the wagon rolled on leaving a trail of incompetence and arrogance.
The ABLP did a really good job on discrediting Lovell, so do not even waste a breath in his direction because ABLP supporters and fence sitters will not consider him.
Dr Adama Francis for leadership of UPP.. get rid of Pearl, Parker, Alister, Dalso, and Azil. IT IS NOT TO LATE. DO IT FOR THE GREATER GOOD.
@Anonymous.
It’s seems you are of the premise that the UPP will run it’s administration as the ABLP does, with a one man gang making all the decisions.
Well if that will be the case, then why change anything, and in that case you have a solid point.
But the policies are what you look at of each party, and not if you like the person or not.
But your point is well taken if you think UPP will follow the same path of the ABLP at present, by covering up corruption, by failing to pursue investigations in government malpractice, failure to bring down the terrible crime rate or push for tougher sentencing laws in this land.
If they will follow the same vain, then no need to change anything.
But by my very honest outlook, I cannot see Richard Lewis, Lovell, Shuggy, and even the very Pringle that you seems to do not like, turn into such corrupt individuals, I just can’t see it.
And I also see them,not fighting for the people, and continue to lie to them over and over and kept the public in the dark, like what happen as to why we have Visa restrictions and the WIOC CEO getting search/detained by the FBI.
These are not simple matters as you may think sir..continuing to brush these serious implications under the rug will come back to bite Antigua, just remember that. Transparency is tantamount in any administration.
So I think that’s what you should follow here, the heart of the person, because that’s where political policies come from, the heart of the person.
So if you’re saying that it’s the same policies and corruption that Pringle and the UPP will bring, then no need to change anything, just watch Antigua continues to go to the dogs.
But just remember this when you cast your vote, that the choice was in your hands..the blood will be also on your hands..you cannot come back later and try to remove yourself from the responsibility of that choice.
You can it ” wash your hands” like Pilot did.
Just remember.
Sorry *vein*
Look I am tired of warning Gaston from penning articles under false impression of some upp sympathizer, and then still move with alacrity to blog and answer yourself under different name or monikers, keep off the site, not because it’s your news site, show restrain and responsible behavior. Am not here to back Pringle, it is true that longevity in parliament does not reward leadership, but Gaston you are also so scared of Harold Lovell that you paid people to stay in abandoned houses in the last constituency Lovell contested to keep him from getting into parliament to neutralize your performative politics where you are paying darely to any person who can sing praises about yourself a non entity.
@ UPP Supporter, I truly think you are a phoney and trying to spread mischief. If you are a genuine Supporter I can understand you have concerns but that should not prevent you our your family from voting. Through thick and thin SUPPORT YOU DAMN PARTY
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