Rolando Brison.
~ Breaks down reasons for ditching US Party ~
PHILIPSBURG–Member of Parliament (MP) Rolando Brison will be declaring himself an independent MP today Wednesday, but has made it clear that his letter will indicate that he will continue to fully support the coalition of nine.
Brison told The Daily Herald last night that he will be submitting a letter to this effect today to Chairperson of Parliament William Marlin and Governor Eugene Holiday.
Brison, the former faction leader of United St. Maarten (US) Party, resigned from the party on Monday evening, 26 days after the coalition announced that he would lead its slate at the January 9, 2020 polls.
Brison said he will be meeting with the various political parties this week and will make a definitive decision on whose slate he will contest the upcoming snap elections before the end of this week. He denied that he will be running with the United People’s (UP) party during a live stream on Tuesday saying that no definitive decision has been made and no agreement signed.
Brison broke down his reasons for leaving the US Party during the live stream. His reasons include not having “sufficient opportunity” to “express” his vision on where he wants the party to go in the future; what the party should stand for and not being able to determine issues such as what type of candidates should be on the slate.
The MP said he has learned that while he was placed as the number one candidate on the US Party slate, this does not necessarily mean that he is the leader; the person who can determine the future of the party; choose the direction in which the party should go; what the party should represent and determine things such as which candidates should be targeted.
“While I was proud and hopeful at the time that I was given the top to lead the party, I was immediately starting to meet with a bit of a disappointed that unfortunately, me being number 1 did not give me sufficient opportunity to express my vision for what the party should be and what we should stand for.”
. He said, “My decision to leave (the US Party – Ed.) was really essentially based on one thing – I want to go into an election with a certain level of autonomy to say this is what we represent. And the fact is unfortunately, my vision for what we represent differs highly from where US Party wants to go in this election. And this particularly has to do with the candidates that we want, with the people we want to involve and the things that we want to do and put out for the people,” Brison said in a live stream on his Facebook page.
He said one of the things he embraced was going out and finding new candidates, fresh faces and people, who were looking for a new form of leadership that was inclusive and wants to “change the face of politics.” Brison said he thinks he is one of the new faces.
“It’s time to embrace the future, take a step back and let the new leadership come forward and lead.” He stressed that existing parties also have an opportunity to evolve.
His main message in discussions with parties this week is enquiring whether they are ready to evolve and determine whether they are “willing to show that they embrace the new wave that is coming.”
US Party was not ready to evolve, he noted.
He made clear that he respects the US Party and its decisions on what it wants to do, but made clear that at a certain point, one has to stick to what they think a party should represent.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/92080-brison-to-declare-himself-independent-today-will-fully-support-coalition-of-9
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