Grassroots supporters of the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) are “puzzled” by complaints against Premier Jennifer Smith by her own backbench, according to party chairman Neville Tyrell.

And “personal issues” are at the root of widely publicised discontent with the Premier.

Mr. Tyrell dismissed charges that the Premier does not communicate with PLP Parliamentarians, saying that all party members had several opportunities weekly at party meetings to address the Premier on policy and political matters.

He said he was “very confident” the party would resolve their internal issues without the kind of split that occurred in the 1980s.

“A little bit of blood don't mean death.”

The party chairman repeated earlier statements that the majority of the party's branch organisations fully supported the Premier and he questioned the loyalty of a group of backbenchers who want to remove Ms Smith from office.

He added: “A lot of grassroots people aren't really sure what the issue is - in terms of why are people calling for change and why are they directing it at Premier Smith. So what we've done is taken the opportunity of going into the branches and talking to the branch members to basically say that our position is - certainly looking for support for Premier Smith - but that most of the issues are all personal.”

Ms Smith's personality has not changed since she came into office and he was having a difficult time understanding why the dissidents “all of a sudden in 2002” had problems with her personality, he continued.

“What they are not saying is that Premier Smith is a very focussed person, she's very dedicated and she has a lot of drive. And she certainly has all of Bermuda at heart. Those are the things that people are not saying about her.”

He added that the Premier was quite prepared to face a challenge to her leadership as had happened throughout much of her political career.

This week, ruling party backbencher Wayne Perinchief, who has emerged as the spokesperson for the dissidents, admitted that his mission was an “uphill struggle” because most of the branches had written letters of support to the Premier.

But he said he was prepared to continue to try to “educate” the membership and believes that the ruling party' Members of Parliament could remove the Premier by a majority vote and appealing to the Governor.

Mr. Tyrell made it clear that the party's official view was that, outside the election of officers at the party's delegates conference, only a vote of no confidence in the Government, with all Parliamentarians participating, could lead to a change at the top. But he pointed out that such a move, if successful, would amount to undermining the Government.

Mr. Perinchief has gone on the record to say that the backbenchers would bury the hatchet should a challenge at the party's November conference fail.

But the party hierarchy view his comments about removing the Premier through a Parliamentary process as a veiled threat.

“Those persons need to check themselves in terms of their position being loyal to the party,” Mr. Tyrell said yesterday.

“You come to the party knowing certain things and you know those are the things that you have to accept. Most people know that Jennifer Smith is the leader of the party and is Premier of the country. There is a process in place internally for a change if that is required. Follow that practice, it's as simple as that.”

And he said that many of the grassroots members had noticed that some of the backbenchers were themselves inaccessible to their constituents by sometimes not showing up at party meetings.

“Sometimes people come to ask a particular Member of Parliament a particular question and sometimes those persons (Parliamentarians) are not always there,” he said.

“It's laughable,” he said of the charge of the Premier's inaccessibility.

Mr. Perinchief has said that the backbenchers are often not consulted on policy initiatives. “I would be surprised if that is the case because I don't think at Central Committee we have that sort of problem. We hear of things and we hear of initiatives that are going to take place. So I have to assume that that same process takes place at Parliamentary group (meetings). What you might be finding is that if a person is not present at the time they could quite easily say ‘I have not heard that.' But that's stretching it.”

Former PLP Secretary General Walter Roban, who was also present during the interview, backed Mr. Tyrell's comments.

Both stressed Parliamentarians are expected to attend meetings of the Central Committee, their own caucus meetings and meetings between the parliamentary group and the Central Committee. All the meetings are held on a regular basis and the Premier is always present unless she is off the Island, Mr. Tyrell said.

Ministers have done informational presentations to the members since the start of the current administration on a regular basis, they said. “Every Minister has done that,” Mr. Roban said.

Major policy initiatives like the bid for Caricom Associate Membership had always been discussed at Central Committee meetings, Mr. Tyrell said, adding that he saw no reason why the practice would not take place at meetings of the parliamentary caucus.

Still, he said, the party had set up two joint committees to address the dissidents' concerns. “Those committees are meeting with a view of resolving this issue so we can go forward with the main event coming up.”

He agreed that the party intended to resolve the issues before the election is called. But he said progress was “slow”.

“I think once people sit down at the table then that's when you start to make progress but when you get these instances of individuals speaking out (publicly) as if nothing is taking place, that sort of derails things. But there is a problem to be resolved.”

“Recent comments have not been helpful,” added Mr. Roban. “Because there is an understanding that we are involved in dialogue and communication on the very issues they have raised.”

Mr. Perinchief declined to say this week whether he thought the joint committees - set up soon after he moved a caucus motion in May asking the Premier to resign - had made any progress.