Former Government Minister Dr Denis Lowe will be in the race for the vice presidency of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) at the political party’s annual conference at the end of the month.
The former Christ Church East MP, who was a guest on the Facebook programme, The Debrief TV Show with presenters Kemar Saffrey, Kemar Stuart, Simon Alleyne and Jermaine Bedford, said he was ready and willing to serve.
“I have been asked to run for two places – general secretary and vice president – and I am running for vice president. I have offered myself because at this stage in my political journey I have accumulated enough experience. I have understood a lot of what the people in the country are saying and want to be done for them. So, therefore, I am making myself available to be part of the thinking of the party as we go forward,” Lowe said.
“I believe I am very talented and effective. I believe I have a national appeal in this country. I get around and I talk to people at all levels of society. I also have as my template, my own journey in life which did not begin at the top; it started at the bottom. I believe I have a purpose I am pursuing.”
Recently, former general secretary George Pilgrim declared he would be vying for the presidency of the 65-year-old political institution.
Lowe, who earlier last month said he wants to contest the 2023 General Election on a DLP ticket, in the same constituency he served before being defeated in the last polls, explained that the official process of candidate selection was not yet completed. However, he said he had spoken to party president Verla DePeiza.
“I am not the ratified candidate for Christ Church East. A journalist, who I resisted, took it upon himself to report that, but it is not true. I have spoken to my president because there is a process and I respect that process,” he said.
When asked directly by presenter Bedford what was his record of representation in the constituency, Lowe said much was done during his tenure.
“I believe my record for Christ Church East is legendary. When I became MP, there was high unemployment, high incidence of crime – a number of persons who were written off because they had done prison time and had several infractions and nobody would take them on,” he said.
“We believe that we improved infrastructure by adding a number of recreational spaces. A number of our kids were playing on the streets. We improved the Silver Sands area, resolving major flooding issues there. We built several houses for persons who would be labelled as indigent but befitting of shelter, including a guy who lived in a pig pen. We built another set of wells so that people can have water-borne toilets….”
The former Minister of the Environment rubbished the suggestion that he was “too old” to return to office.
“I am not a believer that people become indispensable in politics, neither am I a believer of the view that people should be discarded because of their age. I do not believe in ageism. People should be heard; people’s worth should be estimated in a more qualitative and quantitative way. I don’t believe that any pundit or any scientist can tell me if I should run,” he said.
When presenter Saffrey told Lowe that there were rumbles in society that his reputation was tarnished by speculations, the former MP replied: “Tarnished by what? Speculations flared around about Mia Mottley. Speculations flared around about George Payne, about all of the other politicians who came back at senior level and won their seats.
“Let’s not reduce a political outcome to some notion that people are undesirable. Barrow [Errol] was beaten and people came to chase him out the country. He came back and ran,” the former minister insisted. (IMC)
