Minott issue on the agenda for JLP’s July 25 meeting
Dennis Minott’s accusations of vote-buying during the Jamaica Labour Party’s internal deputy leader elections last November will be among a “number of important issues” to be discussed at the July 25 meeting of the party’s central executive.
“I have not yet completed the agenda for the meeting, and I am to hold discussions with the party leader and chairman before the agenda is final,” said JLP general secretary Karl Samuda. “But it would be hard to keep Dr Minott’s vote-buying allegations off the agenda, in light of what happened before Mr Seaga’s announcement.”
On June 25, Opposition leader Edward Seaga abruptly cancelled the June 27 meeting of the central executive, saying members had not been given enough notice of the meeting at which vital party issues were to be discussed. Among the agenda items which Seaga says he had planned to raise at the meeting was his plan to step down as party leader at the party’s November conference.
He had set July 18 as the new date for the central executive meeting and the date for his big announcement as power struggles rocked the party. However, fearing that news of his planned departure had leaked, on June 28 Seaga formally announced – through a press release – that he would relinquish his grip on the party in November.
The announcement temporarily stole the spotlight from the Minott issue.
Minott, an educator and the JLP’s East Portland caretaker/candidate, claimed that some delegates had been paid to vote during the contest for two deputy leaders at last year’s annual conference.
He took his case to Political Ombudsman Bishop Hero Blair who dropped it weeks later on the grounds that he did not legally have the power to investigate the allegations.
Blair’s decision came after an agency, contracted to carry out investigations, found no evidence to substantiate Minott’s allegations. However, Minott held fast to his accusations, adding that more bribery had taken place while the Ombudsman was carrying out investigations.
But all political activities have temporarily ceased since the death of the country’s third prime minister Hugh Lawson Shearer, who was a former leader of the JLP. Shearer, a long-time trade unionist, died last Monday morning and will be buried on July 18.
“The new date for the meeting is now Sunday July 25. That’s the week after Mr Shearer’s funeral,” Samuda said.
