Peter Bunting

Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter

THE SPECTACULAR performance of Jamaica's athletes in Beijing, China, has caused a unity breeze to blow across the island that has seen strangers hugging in the middle of Half-Way Tree and traditional rivals crossing border lines in the tough Corporate Area community of Waterhouse.

But the unity breeze seems to have had no effect on members of the People's National Party (PNP) who are locked in a dog fight for the party's top job.

Anonymous emails and pamphlets, charges of vote buying, threats of lawsuits and allegations of intimidation continue to mar the campaign as Portia Simpson Miller and Dr Peter Phillips gear up for a date with destiny on September 20.

Registration process delayed

On Friday, the planned closure of the delegates' registration process had to be suspended as supporters of both camps clashed, with one well-known Phillips supporter reportedly pulling his firearm at the party's Old Hope Road headquarters. The police were called in. Yesterday, a senior party official told The Sunday Gleaner that the secretariat would not be pursuing the matter as it was now with the police.

The delegate registration process continued yesterday with the secretariat desperately trying to put a wrap on the proceedings to ensure that the draft voters' list would be ready by the proposed early September deadline.

Private security guards at the gate of the headquarters yesterday and uniformed police officers on the compound were clear indications that all was not well.

Outside the compound, Comrades refused entry complained bitterly as they bemoaned what they described as "the destruction of Norman Manley's party".

But General Secretary Peter Bunting put on a brave face even as he confessed that the secretariat was working overtime to control a process that was not going as smoothly as he had hoped.

"I'm not entirely satisfied, but I think from a realistic point of view, I can't tell you that I have been entirely surprised that there have been some breaches (of the code of conduct).

"But at this point, I don't think there has been anything that has happened that is so serious as to endanger the credibility or legitimacy of the process," Bunting told The Sunday Gleaner as he sipped water at the PNP headquarters yesterday.

Bunting also rejected claims that the party was in turmoil even though veteran Comrades have told The Sunday Gleaner that the current presidential election campaign has been the worst they have ever seen in the party.

"The secretariat is working overtime, but I don't think it has reached that (turmoil) as yet.

Administrative process

The PNP general secretary said the security guards and police at the headquarters were part of the administrative process to ensure that not too many persons made it on to the compound, which would make it difficult to manage the process.

He chided the media for making too much of the so-called rift in the party with particular mention of the anonymous emails and pamphlets which have cast serious allegations on the character of persons on both sides of the divide.

The Simpson Miller and Phillips camp have both denied any connection with the emails and insist that they would not be part of any mud-slinging while ensuring that the party remains united.

arthur.hall@gleanerjm.com