WESTERN BUREAU — People’s National Party (PNP) Deputy General Secretary, Harry Douglas, says the party will expel their former North Trelawny Member of Parliament, Wendell “Bull Bull” Stewart, if he carries out his plan to run as an independent candidate in the local government polls.

After the PNP rejected his attempt to represent them in the Falmouth Division, Stewart indicated that he would run independently. The party, according to Douglas, has no plans to expel Stewart at this time, but would act as soon as he is nominated.

“We already have a candidate there, so he can’t run for the party, so if he runs (as an independent) we will have to treat him as our opponent and expel him,” Douglas told the Observer Monday.

He added: ” But we can’t expel him until after nomination day. We heard that he is going to run (as an independent) but he hasn’t notified the party of his decision, nor has he been nominated.”

Stewart, who has been criticised by the party’s hierarchy for poor performance as an MP, was advised not to seek reelection in last October’s general elections. However, last November he applied for selection as the party’s local government candidate, but was again rebuffed. It was at this point that he opted to run on an independent ticket.

Stewart has also expressed disappointment with the PNP’s selection process.

“The candidates were not selected in a democratic way, they were hand-picked by the MP (Patrick Harris) and were clearly not the popular choices,” Stewart charged.

“Why weren’t the candidates selected by delegate votes, as was the case shortly before the 1998 local government election?” the former MP queried.

According to Stewart, his candidacy as an independent would improve the quality of candidates that are available to the voters.

“By offering myself, I am just giving the electorate a better and more credible choice,” he said.