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Mystery still surrounds Wade’s PLP status

Unanimous vote: Damon Wade, chairman of the Progressive Labour Party (File photograph)

The status of the under-fire chairman of the Progressive Labour Party was still unclear yesterday after a meeting this week. An emergency meeting was held by the party’s central committee on Monday. Mr Wade did not return phone messages about the meeting this week. He also did not respond to questions sent by e-mail by press time.The questions included whether he was still the chairman of the party and whether he would step down from the post. A spokeswoman for the PLP also did not respond to questions about Mr Wade’s status by press time.The emergency meeting was called after a unanimous vote of no confidence was passed against Mr Wade and his resignation was demanded by the party executive.The move came after Mr Wade claimed he was owed a place in PLP “friends and family policy” at a PLP central committee meeting last month. The meeting was recorded and posted on social media. Mr Wade appeared in the recording to refer to a proposal, masterminded by himself, which involved an energy project at the National Sports Centre in Devonshire that he claimed could generate jobs and raise funds for investment in black-owned businesses.Mr Wade said in an e-mail to PLP members seen by The Royal Gazette last month that he had been given different reasons for the calling of the emergency central committee meeting by Walter Roban, the PLP deputy leader.He said that Mr Roban identified a “breach of confidentiality within central committee, including the release of an unofficial recording of the chair’s report to the media and the wider public” as the reason for the emergency meeting. Mr Wade added that Mr Roban had said that “members of central committee and branch executives are justifiably demanding that the executive provide clarity on these matters”.He said: “However, having already sent out his notice, he is telling me that ‘the purpose of the meeting will be for the executive to provide central committee with a report on the special executive meeting held on Thursday, December 19’.”Mr Wade added: “Members should know that this should have been done before they sent the unauthorised response to The Royal Gazette earlier this week and represents yet another example of how he is acting out of order.”He claimed that Mr Roban had “sidestepped the spirit” of the PLP constitution “to peddle the will of the executive and the Premier to further undermine” him.