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Chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Myron Walwyn has suggested that persons who have and are resigning from the party are doing so for less genuine reasons than they are letting on.

NDP vice-president Michael Turnbull and former political candidate for the party, Shaina Smith, are two members who went public with their resignations and have now moved over to a new organisation.

Reportedly, more are expected to follow.

“Those persons who have left the party know the true reason why they have done so and many members of the public are also well aware. I wish them all the best in their new venture,” said Walwyn who says their departure will serve the party well.

“We now have a more united National Democratic Party to go about doing the work that is required to truly rebuild the Virgin Islands. I have had many Virgin Islanders reach out to me, wanting to be more involved and I look forward to welcoming more citizens to participate in the political process and ensuring the NDP is truly representative of what and who we are as Virgin Islanders,” the recently-elected party leader said.

I am not going to abandon my party 

Meanwhile, NDP founding members Michael Thomas and Lloyd Black have expressed disappointment at the actions of the two resignees.

Though disappointed, both Thomas and Black said they are not surprised. They said they suspect the resignees have been plotting to leave long before their resignation.

“I am not going to leave my party,” Thomas told BVI News when invited for comment on Tuesday.

“I believe in the ideals. If they (the resignees) believe we got sidetracked, I think it’s our goal to try and put the party back on track and continue to do the right thing that we’ve been doing.”

“I refer to what has happened like this: If I go to a church and I’m not happy with the pastor because he may say certain things that I don’t like, instead of trying to go and get that rectified and corrected, we go down the street and start a new church. A couple years later, somebody in the new congregation ain’t like what that new pastor saying so they get up and they do the same thing. So we keep fractioning the whole thing all time. But, you got to have some type of loyalty to something at some point,” the founding member added.

“Yes, we (the NDP) might have gotten sidetracked in certain areas but when you look at the bigger picture where the country is concerned, the country is thriving and the country is still growing,” Thomas said.