Kenred Dorsett

SOUTHERN Shores MP Kenred Dorsett said yesterday that Prime Minister Perry Christie is his leader and will continue to be leader of the Progressive Liberal Party until the party feels otherwise.

In an interview with The Tribune, Mr. Dorsett said if the PLP is interested in changing its leader, the party will do so at convention and not in the press. He was responding to assertions that he was one of the young members of government that asked Prime Minister Perry Christie to stay on as leader for another term.

Last week, Mr. Christie said he will continue leading the PLP into the next general election, “because young members of his government” have urged him to do so. He also suggested that instability would arise in the party if he were no longer leader, similar to what is occurring in the Official Opposition.

While Mr. Christie did not name the government members who he said have urged him to continue to lead the party, a well-placed source in the Christie administration said Mr. Dorsett was one of these politicians, along with Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe and Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald.

When contacted for comment, Mr. Dorsett would not confirm or deny whether he asked Mr. Christie to stay on as leader.

“We all asked him to stay on when we voted for him at the last convention,” Mr. Dorsett said. “He is the leader, he is my leader, he is our leader, end of discussion. If the PLP is interested in doing anything, we will do what we have to at the convention. Not in the newspaper.”

Mr. Wilchcombe declined to comment yesterday. When approached on the sidelines of a scholarship ceremony yesterday, Mr. Fitzgerald said he did not want to speak on the issue and “overshadow” the event.

Since Mr. Christie’s declaration, several prominent PLPs, including Deputy Prime Minister Phillip Brave Davis, rejected the idea that the party would become unstable if the prime minister chooses to step down as leader.

Last week, former PLP MP Philip Galanis called Mr. Christie “delusional” and said his comments were “the height of nonsense”. He said there are many persons within the party who are capable of bringing a breath of fresh air into the country, ridding it of the “Christie fatigue” it now experiences.

Mr. Christie, while in opposition, said he would consider stepping down as party leader at mid-term and name a successor. However, he later said those comments were misconstrued and he intended to serve a full term if elected prime minister in 2012.

Last September, in the face of speculation that Mr. Davis was eyeing a leadership run, Mr. Christie declared that he would go into the PLP’s convention as leader and emerge as leader.

The party’s convention is scheduled for November after several delays. The PLP has not held a convention since 2009, even though the party is mandated by its constitution to hold one each year.

By Sancheska Brown, Tribune Staff Reporter

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