By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

Many voters are demanding answers from the Republican Party leadership regarding the exclusion of one of the island’s most popular politicians from its list of House candidates, as the GOP appears to be on the verge of yet another major split in an election year.
GOP secretary Kimo M. Rosario said he too is groping for answers and may have to leave the party which, he added, he has been working hard to help unite.
Rosario, in an e-mail, told Variety on Friday that he has been receiving calls from concerned citizens who are unhappy that Rep. David M. Apatang will not be a GOP House candidate.
The most common questions:
• Didn’t the GOP learn anything from the 2005 elections?
• Is the party splitting up again?
• Aren’t people supposed to learn from their mistakes and not repeat them?
• Does the GOP only care about its own interests and not those of the people?
• Does it want to lose since it failed to include winners on its Precinct 1 club slate?
The GOP board of directors is set to meet tomorrow, May 8, for the final selection of the House candidates, according to Rosario.
He said as early as two weeks, ago, word about Apatang’s exclusion began spreading among GOP members who were not pleased by the news.
“For the past few days, I have been receiving calls from the party’s membership inquiring whether it is true that Apatang was not selected,” Rosario said. “I referred all these calls to the Precinct 1 club.”
When Variety on Friday reported that Apatang was not nominated by the GOP Precinct 1 club, many called Rosario “and wanted to know whether the party was still united.”
He added, “Well, that is a good question and I told them to direct their questions to the board of directors and the precinct club as, honestly, I don’t know the answer myself.”
Rosario said the GOP wanted unity which is why former Rep. Heinz S. Hofschneider and Apatang rejoined the party last December.
The two bolted the party in 2005 after its leadership made the unprecedented decision not to hold a gubernatorial primary.
“Like many others, on Dec. 18, I decided to re-join the party for the sake of unity,” Rosario said. “This accord was forged by the teams of Babauta-Benavente and Hofschneider-Apatang, and it was consummated thus uniting the party.”
But just a few weeks after that “unity” meeting, a rift erupted between the GOP board and the Precinct 4 club.
The Precinct 1 club’s controversial decision to drop Apatang from the slate is expected to trigger a bigger rift among the party’s leaders, and may result in the mass resignation of Hofschneider-Apatang supporters.
Rosario noted the lack of party discipline on the part of some precinct clubs.
He said the precinct club leadership was advised not to release any names of aspirants until they were officially endorsed by the GOP board.
He said the revelation about the exclusion of Apatang and incumbent Rep. Martin B. Ada is tantamount to a premature disclosure of the candidates’ names.
The GOP board of directors, Rosario said, “is disappointed that the names of the candidates were made public.”
He added, “Nonetheless, the Precinct Club 1 has decided its precinct’s slate of candidates and I respect that; however, I think going public with the names before receiving the board’s endorsement places the board in a precarious predicament.”