Bobby Pickersgill - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

The leadership of the People's National Party (PNP) is claiming that its decision to skip the September 4 by-election in North West Clarendon is a major strategic move.

This is the second time in its eventful seven-decade history that the PNP has missed a national poll, and the leadership of the party appears unfazed by the dizzying glare its decision to skip the by-election has attracted.

"It's the moment of decision. This is no time for indecision," PNP chairman Robert Pickersgill told The Sunday Gleaner.

According to the PNP, its focus is riveted on the bigger picture: the likelihood of a general election.

According to Pickersgill, the PNP would not be caught napping, as all the signs point to an early general election.

filling vacancies

"We are filling vacancies where they exist," Pickersgill said. He referred to recently appointed constituency caretakers Paul Stewart in North East St Ann, Mikael Phillips in North West Manchester, as well as two others in St Elizabeth who have already been approved by the party's National Executive Council.

"We are, at this time, preparing for all possible outcomes," he declared. "The prime minister may or may not call the elections, but circumstances may call it for him, as things are rapidly unravelling in the country," Pickersgill added.

"So far, six of his ministers have resigned, in less than 22 months, six gone, and he has brought in this new minister," the PNP chairman said. "All this is saying to us is that we must be prepared."

Pickersgill cited former national security minister Trevor MacMillan; former telecommunications minis-ter, Derrick Smith; former mining minster, Clive Mullings; and former junior minister in the transport and works ministry, Joseph Hibbert.

The others he named were former minister without portfolio in the finance ministry, Don Wehby, as well as state minister in the industry and commerce ministry, Michael Stern, forced out by the dual-citizenship challenge (expected to be reappointed after the by-election).

The "new minister" Pickersgill refers to is Marline Malahoo Forte, who is a state minister in the foreign affairs ministry.

According to Pickersgill, the PNP's preparation for its annual conference in mid-September and constituency conferences across the country coincide with the present economic crisis and what he described as the "pandemonium raging in the finance ministry".

He cites as worrying signs, problems at the senior-management level of the finance ministry, the downgrade of Jamaica's credit rating by Standard and Poor's, and the pending resumption of a borrowing relationship with the International Monetary Fund.

The PNP chairman argued that there was no discord in the party from ignoring a by-election precipitated by its mounting of a legal challenge to Stern's eligibility to sit in Parliament.

It is the second time in its 71-year history that the PNP has decided to boycott an election.

Under President Michael Manley, the PNP opted out of the 1983 snap election and decided that the party would not contest a poll until a new voters' list was produced.

legal action

Pickersgill described the party's decision to pursue legal action against persons sitting in the Parliament unconstitutionally as a just cause. He said the need to push the matter through the courts to prevent a breach of the Constitution was even more demanding now than it was in 1983.

"In this one, we have established the principle ... . This one has a grounding in the Constitution," Pickersgill declared.