JAMAICA ELECTION 2016 (“disgraceful and direspectful”) : PNP ducks debate Insists it will not participate until Holness apologises for Portia comments. Disrespecting the Voters of JA. Is the PM concern that she may be exposed in a debate?

BY ALPHEA SAUNDERS Senior staff reporter saundersa@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, February 12, 2016    

THERE is now great uncertainty over the much-anticpated political debates after the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) yesterday indicated that it will not participate in any planned discourse until Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Andrew Holness addresses what the party terms as “disgraceful and direspectful” references about Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

Portia Simpson Miller and Andrew Holness

The move was widely seen by members of the public, particularly on social media, as an attempt by the ruling party to weasel out of the debates. At the same time, the National Integrity Action (NIA) described the PNP’s action as “backward”.

Yesterday, PNP General Secretary Paul Burke told the Jamaica Debates Commission (JDC) in a letter that the party feels that Holness’s conduct was relevant and critical to its participation in the debates, describing as “irresponsible” his statements regarding the shooting in Sam Sharpe

Square on Sunday night at a JLP rally, which left three people dead. Burke stated further that the party was outraged and disappointed at the Opposition leader’s statements about Simpson Miller. The PNP also wants the 90-minute leadership debate, which the JDC has proposed for February 20, to be done in the town-hall format used for the Democratic Party presidential candidates in the United States. The JLP, on the other hand, has confirmed that it will accept the JDC’s proposal for the three debates, using the format that was used in 2011.

The proposed date for the other two debates are February 16 and 18, when both sides would field questions about social issues and the economy.

But the JDC says it is not possible to meet the PNP’s demands as it could not get involved in the row between the two political parties, nor does it have enough time and resources to put the systems in to facilitate a town-hall debate.

Speaking at a press conference at the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Secretariat in downtown Kingston yesterday, deputy chairman of the JDC, Brian Schmidt, made it clear that the JDC “cannot adopt the US Democratic Party’s format for a town-hall debate this time. The US format includes a number of things that are uncommon in this market”. more