Charles... a constitution should never be amended everytime to meet any situation

PEARNEL Charles, one of the contenders for the leadership of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), is once again at loggerheads with his party, this time expressing annoyance at the decision to amend the constitutional regulations which previously required 60 days between the completion of a final delegates' list and the date for annual conference.

According to Charles, at Thursday night's meeting of the party's Central Executive - the highest decision-making body outside of annual conference - members voted to amend the constitution, reducing the period from 60 days to 45 days.

He said the proposed February 19 date for the annual conference and the leadership election was three days short of the 60 days, so the constitution was amended "because of three days".

Said Charles: "A constitution should never be amended everytime to meet any situation. Instead situations should be adjusted to meet the constitutional regulations. This is just not how things are done," Charles told the Observer yesterday.

He said, too, that the amendments and ratification of the conference dates by the Central Executive appeared to be a "slap in the face" of the agreement reached between himself and general secretary Karl Samuda, which led him to drop his court case against the party.

According to Charles, as part of the agreement, the conference would have been set for the first weekend in March.

"The action is wrong and it is a bad reflection on how the party plans to do business. Are we to expect that the constitution will now be amended to suit interest groups?" Charles asked.

A JLP source told the Observer yesterday that other members also raised concerns over the action, but concerns were drowned in shouts of "we want elections now!"
Charles admitted that his concerns received support, but yesterday declined to say who were the members that supported him.

Another source characterised Thursday night's constitutional amendments as "the new and different way in which things are going to be done. People raised concerns, but the 'herd' mentality took over. Nobody voted against the majority. So this is what is new, and what is different."

Only last week, Charles agreed to drop a court case he brought against the JLP, ending weeks of dispute between himself and the secretariat over the selection of delegates for the party's annual conference which was scheduled for November. The court case forced the postponement of the conference and the leadership election, which should have seen the replacement of Edward Seaga who has led the JLP for more than 30 years.

Charles contended that the process which selected the list of delegates to vote for a new leader at conference was corrupted, and that names were removed and replaced by others, who are supporting the other contender, Bruce Golding, the party's chairman and Charles' brother-in-law.

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