PATTERSON. my timetable does not depend on Seaga

PRIME Minister P J Patterson yesterday restated his intention to retire before the next general election and said that the timing of his departure would not in any way be influenced by the action of JLP boss, Edward Seaga.

"I will not be leading the (People's National) Party into the next elections whenever those elections are held," Patterson told editors during a briefing at Jamaica House, the prime minister's office.

General elections are constitutionally due in Jamaica by the end of 2007, and Patterson, 67, long ago indicated that he will not be at the helm of the PNP by the time they come around.

The local government minister, Portia Simpson Miller and the security minister, Dr Peter Phillips are the clear front-runners for the post-Patterson leadership of the PNP, but other aspirants have also been jostling for positions in the eventual race.

However, discussion about Patterson's political future, including whether he might have a change of heart, has resurfaced in the past week in the face of debate over whether or when Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader, Edward Seaga, will eventually step down.

Seaga, 73, has been at the helm of the JLP for 30 years, but is under pressure to leave to make way for a younger leader, most likely the party's chairman, Bruce Golding. The concern of the critics is that under Seaga the JLP has lost five consecutive general elections.

A week ago Seaga said he had in his own head a timetable for his own retirement, but said that he would not yet publicly unveil it, fearing that Patterson and the PNP use the information to their advantage in timing the next general elections.

"If I made known my own plans it would be a gift to the PNP," Seaga told interviewers on the HOT102 FM show, the Breakfast Club. "They would set their timetable around my plans."

He also suggested that an election around the time the JLP is putting in a new leader would not allow the person who won the contest to settle down and heal the divisions opened up by the leadership race.

Patterson largely dismissed Seaga's argument, said he was surprised that he and the PNP were being brought into a discussion about the future of the JLP and stressed that he would not plan his own future around anything that Seaga did.

"My timetable does not depend on him," Patterson said.
He, however, declined to give any indication on how much time he would like to give a new PNP leader on the job before it was time to call a general election.

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