No debate cost PNP the win, says report

The decision by former prime minister Portia Simpson Miller not to participate in a national debate may have cost the then ruling People’s National Party (PNP) the election, according, according to a committee set up to examine the party’s defeat.

The Julian Robinson committee was established to conduct a formal assessment of the party’s electoral loss. It presented its report to PNP executive members last Monday, but has not yet been made public. But both major newspapers have quoted extensively from the report that showed the PNP entered the election campaign with unresolved issues among members of its leadership.

The report is said to be critical of the PNP’s leadership regarding the timing of the election, with one newspaper reporting that “the report does not name the persons who should shoulder the blame, but anyone who reads it would know at whose feet the blame should be laid.”

Regarding the decision not to participate in the debate, there is the criticism that even after JLP leader Andrew Holness had answered questions regarding the consecution of his home, the PNP stuck to its position of not participating in the debates, a decision that the committee described as “fatal.”

The committee also said it found that campaign management meetings were infrequent, with not a sufficient mix of younger people involved in the leadership of the campaign.

It also indicated that the PNP’s message of economic management “did not convey any hope of ease to the challenging economic circumstances of the electorate,” and any attempt to provide an ease to the lower socio-economic group was not evident.

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) won the February 25 general election by a one-seat majority in the 65-member Parliament.