POLITICAL SCIENTIST Peter Wickham issued the following statement after the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) National Council voted earlier tonight to expel Dr Maria Agard.
Agard, the MP for Christ Church West, had been summoned to answer nine conduct charges, but walked out of the meeting two hours after it began at the party’s Roebuck Street, St Michael headquarters.
The full statement follows:
The moment that Dr Agard walked into the meeting flanked by these two attorneys, both of whom are well-known to the BLP, it was clear that she was expressing a disinterest in having any further association with the BLP and it is now clear that the BLP also supports her position.
One has to give her credit for attending since others in that position often didn’t but it is clear that her intention was to antagonise and not pacify and the outcome is therefore unsurprising.
Mr Gollop’s assertion about “lawlessness” is a most unfortunate and inappropriate label coming from an Attorney of considerable standing and moreover one who is intimately familiar with the BLP’s constitution.
READ: BLP chairman Mia Mottley issues statement on Agard expulsion.
READ: Statement by attorney Hal Gollop after walking out of the BLP meeting.
READ: Atmosphere leading up to the meeting.
He knows fully well how the disciplinary procedure work and who the members of that committee are, indeed he was to the best of my knowledge affiliated with the BLP when the same machinery was used to charge Rommel Marshall. Why then would he expect it to have changed in this instance?
Would his notion of justice have been satisfied if the BLP impanelled persons who were not members of the National Executive to adjudicate the Agard matter in contravention of their own constitution?
I am curious to know what further advice Gollop will now give Agard regarding her political future. (BN)
