FORMER People's National Party (PNP) Councillor Milton Russell has quit the party, citing bad timing on the part of Dr Peter Phillips who announced at a divisional meeting in Harbour View Sunday that he would be challenging Portia Simpson Miller for the party presidency.

Russell, the former councillor for the Montego Bay West division, has resigned with immediate effect from the party and all of its affiliates, citing in part, a lack of faith in Dr Phillips' loyalty to the party.

"As someone who has sacrificed not just myself, but family, career and personal resources for the good of the PNP, I believe my lifelong loyalty to this noble movement can never ever be questioned, and it is sad that I now find myself in a position where I cannot honestly say the same of Dr Phillips," Russell said in a letter to the editor yesterday.

He said it was his belief that, with Dr Phillips at the helm, "JLP's tenure and grip on power is as 'Solid as a Rock'".
Meanwhile, senior party members Derrick Kellier and Roger Clarke said too that the Phillips' decision to challenge Simpson Miller came at a bad time.

" I don't think - based on how the political landscape is right now - that a challenge will enhance the party's situation,"
said Kellier.

Clarke, on the other hand, said he "was hoping that this would never happen now because the JLP is on tender hooks because of those constitutional cases. "Nobody knows how it will go," he said.

The men joined two of the country's noted political analysts who suggested that the current movements within the party could create turmoil.

Analyst Lloyd B Smith made it clear that while the move to select a new leader may be the direction in which the party is looking, the route could be disastrous.

"Portia Simpson Miller, contrary to what some may suggest, is an asset rather than a liability to the PNP. She remains the most popular... an election could end up with the party being even more divided than it already is," he said.

And said Dr Paul Ashley: "I strongly believe that whatever the outcome, this will mean an end to some political careers ... an end to the loser's political career," he told the Observer.

- Kimmo Matthews and Mark Cummings

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