By Balford Henry, Senior Staff ReporterTHE UNITED People's Party (UPP) plans to field candidates in all 60 seats at the next General Election, says general secretary Horace Matthews.
According to Mr. Matthews the party intends to concentrate on 36 "winnable" constituencies, but would be seeking to have candidates in all constituencies.
"We don't want to disenfranchise our members, so we want to have 60 candidates. But, we will be concentrating our resources in 36, where the campaigning will be more intense," he said.
On the question of the 50,000 signatures which the party needs to be recognised by the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) and be allowed scrutineers and agents paid by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ), Mr. Matthews said that the target date was April 10. The party already has approximately a quarter of those signatures.
The law requires that a political per cent of the votes to be recognised in the political process. However, in 1997, because the NDM had not yet contested a general election, it was allowed to participate after producing a list of 5,000 members and submit a petition signed by 50,000 persons, not necessarily members. The same courtesy has been extended to the UPP.
Mr. Matthews said that what was needed to achieve the target was mobilisation of the party's machinery.
"It is not a problem getting the signatures, it is just for us to mobilise the manpower," he said.
EOJ public relations spokesman Neville Graham said that the EAC had instituted the rule to ensure that only properly constituted parties are allowed to take part in the electoral process.
He said that while the political parties are given recognition during the process leading up to election day, it is the candidates who are recognised after nomination day. So, if the UPP fails to get the 50,000 signatures, the party could still nominate candidates, but they would be treated as independents and would be required to train and pay their own indoor agents and other election day functionaries normally covered by the EOJ.
