In a letter addressed to DP leader, Paul Chow, a group of civil servants have begged Chow to withdraw DP’ s candidature in the Mont Fleuri bye-election because they say they will not be able to vote for fear of being victimized. This come after France Albert Rene, SPPF’s party Chairman controversially ordered the SPPF inhabitants of Mont Fleuri to boycott the bye-election. As a result only opposition supporters will come down to vote on the 19th July and it is now feared that their names will be taken down for future victimization by the SPPF government. The turn out is therefore expected to be very low; something which is not good for the SNP.
The letter which is dated 28th June 2008 reads: “Dear Mr. Chow, With regards to the pull out from the election by the SPPF, and following a meeting they had at Maison du Peuple yesterday, it is advisable that you drop the nomination of Mr. Elizabeth and do not take part in this election as well.” The letter which has been purportedly written by a group of Mont Fleuri civil servants has also been copied to Wavel Ramkalawan, the SNP leader. It goes on to say, “The SPPF is going to place a great number of people in Mont Fleuri to watch on who goes to vote and they are going to record the names of each and everyone of the inhabitant. For us who are civil servants working in the government and living at Mont Fleuri, we find ourselves to be in a difficult situation because we are going to be victimized and also lose our jobs. This was the topic of the meeting at Maison du Peuple last night.”
The letter accuses SPPF of becoming more “violent” and “spying on people in their homes at night.” It implores Chow to “…understand us as we have our children to care. SPPF have now become more violent than ever. There are people spying at night in the Mont Fleuri district listening to conversation and telephone tapped as well.” The civil servants claimed to have supported and voted for the alliance in the last general elections. They said that they have “…decided not to go to vote because we are going to be victimized and lose our jobs. Please Mr. Chow listen to us and withdraw from this election. If the SPPF was to take part, then it would have been o.k. for us to go and vote, but now with DP and SNP contesting, we cannot go to the Polling Station.”
The letter concludes by imploring Chow to re-consider his decision to take part in these elections and work out a deal with SNP. “Please liaise with SNP and get things sorted out for the benefit and the sake of us civil servants living in Mont Fleuri. Our lives are in danger and you must understand this. Please pull out now!” However, those who have read the letter have voiced the opinion that it most probably emanates from SNP themselves. The SNP has employed every tricks in the book to get DP to pull out of this election. First, Ramkalawan went on television to opine that DP should also withdraw their candidature. Then this letter was sent to party leader Chow basically making the same point. Mancienne is known to have arrogantly told Chow that the election is an SPPF-SNP affair and DP should not interfere. Most recently SNP has been circulating text messages telling people that DP has finally pulled out. On the other hand, some Executive Committee members of the SNP have publicly criticised Ramkalawan’s decision to rule out a deal with DP earlier on. They claim that he has been too hasty in writing to Chow to inform him that an opposition collaboration in these elections is not possible without consulting his Executive Committee. The SNP clearly cannot afford to lose this election as it would be a psychological blow of mammoth proportion for them. Whereas DP has nothing to lose but everything to gain by participating. The DP leadership has cleverly adopted the slogan “Save Mont Fleuri but don’t save Ferrari” and has uncharacteristically been hard at work doing door to door everyday and visiting the Mont Fleuri constituents in their homes. One DP supporter stated that “The mood is buoyant in our camp and the response in the district has been surprisingly very good indeed. We are confidant that we would do well in this election.”
For their part SNP is having a lot of difficulty explaining and justifying the resignation of the impulsive Ferrari. The fact remains that the decision to resign was miscalculated and crass. It was a political blunder which the SNP leadership now recognizes should have never happened. Everything is up for grabs on the 19th July and may the best man win!