Aug 21 - GSD’s Selwyn Figueras To Step Down
Opposition MP Selwyn Figueras has this afternoon made public his intention to leave frontline politics and not offer his name as a candidate for this year’s general election. Mr Figueras has served for four years as the GSD’s Shadow Spokesman for Justice, Traffic, Transport and Planning. He says that he has opted to prioritise time with his young and growing family. This is his statement in full:
I am today confirming what has been, for some time, an open secret, which is my decision not to offer myself for consideration by the GSD executive when it selects the GSD's slate of candidates for the next general election.
It was an honour for me to have been selected to stand for and be elected as part of the GSD team in 2011. It has been an even greater honour to serve this community in Parliament for the last four years, latterly under the leadership of Daniel Feetham, who has worked tirelessly to fill the void inevitably left by the departure of his predecessor from frontline politics in Gibraltar. The Leader of the Opposition has overseen what has, at times, been a very difficult, in some ways radical process of modernisation for the party as it prepares to persuade the community of its preparedness for Government in this election and beyond. I wish him and the team the very best for the future.
I communicated my decision to stand down to the Leader of the Opposition in June this year and believe that it is now time for the decision to be made public. As for the reasons for the decision, it is a matter that I have been pondering for a long time and one that has certainly not been easy. It was particularly difficult given that I have enjoyed the opportunity to contribute to politics during the course of many (often unnecessarily heated) meetings of Parliament.
My wife and I were blessed with a child ten days before the election in 2011 and, more recently, we have been blessed once more by the arrival of a second boy in January of this year. For the last 12 months as I tended to personal, professional and political responsibilities, it had become increasingly apparent to me by dint of the many demands on my time and, despite the deep sense of pride and fulfilment I have derived from my brief brush with frontline politics, that now was the time to take a step back from it to prioritise other very and increasingly important aspects of my life.
Leaving frontline politics behind is a difficult step to take, particularly given the very real concern any politician harbours about whether he may find that that step back from the front line winds up being the last act of any wider or political significance to the community that he makes in his life. I am confident that this is not the case but am equally happy, in the knowledge that this is the right decision in the current circumstances, to accept the possibility.
I will continue to discharge my responsibilities as Shadow spokesman for Justice, Traffic, Transport and Planning until such time as Parliament is dissolved.
{fcomment}
