Webber
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
WITH PORTIA Simpson Miller expressing concern over the accuracy of the delegate's list for the pending People's National Party (PNP) president succession election, the party's deputy general secretary Maureen Webber has assured candidates they have nothing to fear.
Ms. Webber told The Sunday Gleaner last week that the final list of delegates from each group is complete. She said the party secretariat is currently preparing to issue forms on which these delegates will be nominated, to the respective groups.
COMFORTABLE
"The list that we have of groups is made up of persons who went through the due process and the leadership of the party feels comfortable with it," said Ms. Webber. "People have got to understand that this is not the first time that the party has done this. We have had presidential elections before," she added. "We are building on the past by improving our systems."
Approximately 3,400 delegates will be chosen by the various groups, with another 260 from the party's National Executive Council (NEC). Fifty delegates are expected from the National Workers' Union (NWU), the PNP's labour affiliate.
Ultimately, just over 4,000 delegates are expected to cast their ballots.
Mrs. Simpson Miller, the Minister of Local Government, Community Development and Sport, is campaigning against Finance Minister Omar Davies, National Security Minister Peter Phillips and former Water and Housing Minister Karl Blythe, to succeed P.J. Patterson as PNP president and become Jamaica's seventh Prime Minister.
On Wednesday, during the launch of the final leg of Mrs. Simpson Miller's campaign, deputy campaign manager Paul Burke said her team would work vigilantly to ensure the final list of delegates was accurate.
"The democratic process has always been flawed. The party secretariat in the past two years has tried to do some corrective measures but it has not cleaned up the system totally," said Mr. Burke. "The party leadership did no policing (of the system) for more than a decade and that's why we are where we are."
Ms. Webber also said that no decision had been taken by the party as to whether the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) would oversee the polls. The EOJ monitored the Jamaica Labour Party's leadership contest last year.
