PRIME Minister PJ Patterson poked fun at Edward Seaga’s tax problems Sunday night, joking that he has delayed the general election so the opposition leader could sort out the GCT case that his companies now have before the Privy Council.

He also ridiculed Seaga’s guessing game over when the elections would be called, advising the opposition leader to shoot the horse from whose mouth he claimed to have heard that the poll would be on September 26.

Under Jamaica’s constitution the prime minister can dissolve Parliament and call a general election anytime within the five-year cycle of a government’s life. The Government can also have a three-month grace period after the end of its term before an election is called. Patterson has said that Jamaicans will go to the polls before the end of the year, but no one yet knows exactly when.

“Now, some might ask, what am I waiting for,” Patterson told supporters at a PNP rally in Montego Bay. “Many of you remember that a few months ago, he (Seaga) said there was a little matter between him and the tax people and if he didn’t take care of it within a certain time he would not consider it appropriate to offer himself to be the prime minister of this country.”

“I am a fair man,” the prime minister added. “I believe in giving everybody a good opportunity. So I have been giving him some time to put his house in order because my house is in order.”

All this was a joking reference to the case two of Seaga’s companies, Premier Investment and Town and Country Resorts, lost in the local court against tax officials’ claim that they were liable for nearly $40 million in GCT (General Consumption Tax) that was not paid by Seaga’s insolvent hotel, Enchanted Gardens. Seaga has insisted the liability belonged to an American company that had a management contract for the hotel.

He has also said that if the case is not resolved before the election he would not assume the prime ministership if the JLP won the poll.

Patterson’s reference to the issue was also likely to have been a sly attempt to draw attention to Seaga’s deeper financial difficulty — the estimated $1 billion owed by his companies on Enchanted Gardens. That debt is now held by Dennis Joslin, the American who acquired the right to work out liabilities that used to be in the hands of Finsac, the agency that the Government used to bail out financial sector companies that collapsed in the mid-1990s under a weight of non-performing loans.

While claiming to be accommodating Seaga, Patterson quipped that the opposition leader did not have too much time.

“Although I am a patient man… patience is running out and time is running out and I have given him every opportunity to put his house in order,” Patterson said.

But it was clear that the election date will not be announced before September 6 when Patterson opens the first segment of the North Coast Highway. He also suggested that it would be after he has completed a tour of the island to present PNP candidates.

Said the prime minister: “A few weeks ago, I went into Region 1 to test that my horses were ready. Two Wednesdays ago, I moved from the north in Region 1, to the east in Region 2, to see that my horses are ready. Tonight, I moved to the west to see that my horses are ready and next week Sunday I shall be moving to the south to see that my horses are ready.

“I am saying for all to hear: every stable that I have checked, the PNP horses are bristling and rearing to go.

“After I finish checking the north, checking the east, checking the west, checking the south and you know you must check the centre, and when I finish that, then I shall be ready to say ‘on your marks’.”

On Seaga’s prediction of a September 26 election date, Patterson, lapsing into Jamaican patois, said: “A man say him get it from the horse’s mouth and I say to that man, shoot that horse. If him want to run election on the 26th of September make him go run it, that’s the only date on which him gwine win. Dem say a clock is right, even when it not working, two times every day. Seaga caan get nutten right.”

And Patterson also used the evening’s meeting to continue to hammer Seaga on his connection to embattled banker Don Crawford in keeping with ads by the PNP group the Patriots that questioned the JLP leader’s links to the failed banker and the implications for the country if the JLP is elected.

“I went to New York to meet with our brothers and sisters over there and from there I went to Atlanta. Now, I have a good memory of everybody I meet at every time. Those who met me at plane side and those who met me at curbside. And I don’t have to deny anybody who met me or was associated in espousing my cause because I am not a man given to forgetfulness,” he said.

That was a reference to PNP claims — denied by the JLP — that Crawford helped to organise and promote Seaga’s Atlanta fund-raiser and Seaga’s 1996 statement that accountants had overlooked two substantial loans he had at Crawford’s failed Century National Bank during a debt consolidation.

On JLP claims of a litany of corruption in the Government, Patterson said: “They cannot show, and will never be able to show, that any person in the PNP Government is involved in any act of corruption because our hands are clean. If you notice within the last few months Audley Shaw (who has made a reputation of unveiling alleged acts of corruption in the Government) is as quiet as a lamb.

“There comes a time in the fight when (boxing great Muhammad) Ali say it’s time for me to stop floating like a butterfly. It is time for me to sting like a bee. The time for stinging is now and I man ready and my team is ready and you are ready.”