THE LONG-OVERDUE election of officers to lead the People's National Party Youth Organisation (PNPYO) will finally take place on November 29.

The election has been due since 2006, but has been postponed at least two times.

"Only a serious national disaster could possibly stop that conference from being held," Ricardo James, the acting general secretary of the PNPYO, said at a press conference at the PNP headquarters in St Andrew Tuesday.

The race for the top job is expected to be between Dr Peter Phillips' strongman, Mark Malabver, and Portia Simpson Miller backer, Damion Crawford.

Phillips was rejected by a majority of PNP delegates when he challenged Simpson Miller in a bruising battle which reopened wounds from the four-way leadership vote in 2006.

James, however, is adamant that the bad blood which beset the PNP will not trickle into the youth movement.

Tribal arrangement

"September 20 has come and gone and the PNPYO has moved beyond that," James said.

He added: "We have no interest in that sort of tribal arrangement going forward."

The PNPYO was taken into receivership shortly after the organisation's last president Andrew Okola left for law studies in the United Kingdom. An appraisal report, conducted by the PNP after its 2007 general election loss, said that the youth group was a shadow of itself.