WIPM revamps platform visibility

The Windward Islands People’s Movement (WIPM) party met at the Eugenius Johnson Centre in Windwardside on Wednesday morning to discuss the governing party’s pre-electoral agenda. This writes The Daily Herald. The party leaders came together to assess their delivery on party platform electoral promises, review their strategy onwards and set a unified course for the remainder of the governing mandate so as to showcase their accountability.
WIPM party leader and Central Committee chairman Rolando Wilson, together with party Secretary General and Island Council member Carl Buncamper, extended an interview on the goals of the meeting. The party leaders decided to meet every two months and report back to the community on steps taken to address any assessed deficiencies. The key issues discussed this time were the upcoming 2015 elections and the WIPM party marking its 45^th anniversary, also in 2015. The party plans to step-up its visibility from November 2014 to November 2015, outlining earlier than customary the party’s political programme and goals for the next term, so people can comment on these and provide feedback. The theme chosen for the events designed to highlight their 45th anniversary will be, “Reflect on the past and focus on the future.” These events will revamp both the political and project base of the party as well as their fundraising capacity. Party-list candidates for office are expected to raise funds from their core base.
Buncamper explained that the party leaders are attuned to criticism that all elected politicians tend to distance themselves from direct communication with their electorate. The WIPM party is sensitised to this tendency, which came up in internal assessment discussions. To address this, the party leaders will step-up efforts to improve performance in the area of communication, transparency and visibility. “We had made a decision in late 2013 that we would become way more visible in 2014 and onward as a party. This will be not only in the sense of reflecting unity, but also to highlight our party programme as a structured means of propelling us further as a political institution. In light of that, we’ve set-up a tentative agenda, setting meetings to strengthen the WIPM political family,” said Buncamper.
Another area of focus of the party will be in “strengthening gender equality.” This will be reflected in the composition of those who the party is vetting for running on the WIPM slate. The party representatives are encouraging interested individuals to contact them in this regard to discuss their individual strengths and potential contribution to the party and their fit for electoral candidacy. The WIPM party announces it already shortlisted a good number of potentially viable candidates that will be approached before being officially invited to join the party-steering meetings. In this meeting, a number of points were discussed among the governing party members of both the Island Council and the Executive Council branch, to articulate core topics for the upcoming Caribbean Netherlands Week in The Hague this June.