As first election concludes for Andrew Furey, next step is winning a seat in Legislature.
The next challenge on Furey’s agenda will be to get elected to the House of Assembly. Furey, a political neophyte in terms of legislative experience, won the Liberal Leadership Monday and will be sworn-in as the provinces next Premier, but has to gain a seat in Legislature.
Memorial University political scientist emeritus, Steve Tomlin says Furey has to secure in a by-election or a general election which has to be called in the next year.
Tomlin says the challenge is that Furey is talking over a minority government. He could choose to run in Dwight Ball’s District Humber Valley- Gros Morne.
Meanwhile John Abbott says he does intend on running during the next general election, which could mean joining Andrew Furey’s team. Now that the leadership has been decided, an election must happen within the next year.
While Abbott could not outright comment to running as Liberal, he does say that is his preference as hr values the history of the party and the advances they have made.
Yesterday evening, the detailed breakdown voting for the Liberal Leadership was in and it reveals Andrew Furey won every single district over John Abbott. The final count was 13,645 for the Premier-elect and 7,537 for Abbott.
The districts were weighed equally and assigned 1,000 points each. A candidate must receive over 20, 001 points (or 50.0025 percent) to be declared victory. Ultimately, Furey earned 26,443 and Abbott 13,557.
The election committee of the Liberal Party will be meeting in the coming days to discuss the leadership election.