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Opposition Leader Dr Keith Mitchell (L) and Prime Minster Tillman Thomas

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada -- Political pundits are calling it the start of the “unofficial campaign” for Grenada’s next general election.

The parliamentary opposition New National Party (NNP) held a mass rally in St David last Sunday that attracted hundreds of energized party supporters.

Opposition members, including NNP leader and former prime minister, Dr Keith Mitchell, lambasted the policies and performance of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas appears to be readying for an election, with signals of whom he is favouring to be on his team when he calls the polls, which could be held anytime between now and October 2013.

Thomas has bypassed the NDC executive, which comprises MPs and elected members of the party, and opted for his own series of meetings with a handpicked team of individuals.

Three meetings were held recently: one each in St Andrew North-West, St Andrew South-East and St Patrick East.

After reports surfaced of a first meeting in Mt St Ervans in St Andrew, Thomas and two others who attended – Sports Minister Patrick Simmons and Information Minister Glen Noel – downplayed its significance and offered varying explanations for convening it.

The prime minister said, “It was a normal get-together of supporters of the party,” and a meeting with party members he had not seen for a long time.

Simmons called it “a meeting of community leaders,” and Noel referred to it as “one-in-a-series” being held with “stakeholders”.

However, whatever the explanations given by Thomas and his two colleagues, the meetings are said to be taking on an increasing tone of attacks on some members of the party’s executive.

In fact, NDC leader Thomas is quoted as saying that “the executive is trying to run the party.” However, sources say that Thomas has given no explanation on which organ of the NDC should be leading the operations of the party.

The team travelling with Thomas to the meetings includes Education Minister Franka Alexis-Bernadine, who was defeated by Stanford Simon for the Deputy Chairmanship position of the NDC at last July’s party convention.

Some insiders suggest that Thomas would like Bernadine, who has publicly expressed “full support” for the prime minister, to be his candidate for the Town of St George in the upcoming elections.

Among others on the team is Health Minister Ann Peters. There is speculation that she may be favoured by the prime minister to replace either Sylvester Quarless or Alleyne Walker as candidates in St Andrew at the next national polls.

Others on the prime minister’s touring team have included deputy leader of the NDC Nazim Burke, Minister of Finance.

“Some of these people who were part of the Revolution are using these meetings to attack the Revolution and the NJM in all manner of ways,” said one woman who attended the meeting in St Andrew North-West.

“We’re seeing the return of NNP’s scaremongering politics, this time NDC is using it against their own,” she said. “It has been made clear by one of the individuals that the struggle is for the NDC party. They have been talking about wanting the brand.”

The NDC won a comfortable 11- 4 victory over the NNP in general elections in 2008.

But, with each passing year since then, a gap appears to be widening inside the government and party over the country’s performance.

The prime minister maintains that a lot has been done, describing 2011 as a “prolific year,” and he remains confident of re-election based on government’s economic management and its “good governance” agenda.

Others in the government and party, however, do not share the optimism of the prime minister and his trusted lieutenants, Burke and Noel, and have been pressing for changes in policy and strategies that could lead to the delivery of more tangibles to Grenadians.

At least two public opinion polls have indicated Grenadians’ dissatisfaction with the economic performance, leadership and direction of the country.

But the prime minister has dismissed both the commissioning of the polls and their content, saying he is the “greatest asset” to the NDC.

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