Portia Simpson last night warned PNP delegates not to be bribed against voting for her in the party’s leadership contest after key campaign workers had claimed that PNP supporters had been paid not to attend her rally in Morant Bay.

“I am beseeching you not to allow others to pay for not voting for Portia,” Simpson Miller said in a speech in front of a statue of the national hero, Paul Bogle, outside the Morant Bay courthouse, in the eastern parish of St Thomas.

Bogle, a Baptist deacon, in 1865 led a rebellion of recently freed slaves seeking better conditions in colonial Jamaica. But the uprising was brutally put down and hundreds of people hanged.

Last night, Simpson Miller invoked the memory of Bogle in her campaign to become leader of the PNP and prime minister of Jamaica, telling supporters that it was of symbolic importance that she started the home leg of the campaign in the same section of the island that he launched his rebellion.

But she suggested that there were powerful forces that wanted, including to the point of paying bribes, to stop her march to Jamaica House, the prime minister’s office.

In her speech, cut short because of time, Simpson Miller did not elaborate on the issue, but touched substantially on the point in a prepared text that was earlier given to journalists.

The text said: “.As I think about the women refusing bribe for the oppressive class of people from St Thomas; as I think about the £400 that the young Maroon collected for the capturing of Bogle, I think about my campaign for the presidency of the PNP.

“This Christmas was not good for many of the delegates and supporters. of Team Portia. Many of you are right here with us.

“I think about all the information I am receiving of thousands of dollars in bribes that are being offered to delegates from those who are against change. You will remember that even Marcus Garvey was sold out. Resist the urge to sell out and continue the uprising for change as you step aboard this train – from Morant to Jamaica House. Let me say this, delegates are rising up against those who are getting in the way of this new wave for change.”

Earlier, a delegate from St Thomas had told the rally that PNP supporters in the parish had been paid up to $2,000 to stay away from the rally, but did not say by whom.

Simpson Miller is seeking to becoming leader of the PNP when the party’s president and Jamaica’s prime minister, P J Patterson, steps down. Patterson wants a new leader in place by April and is expected to this month announce the date for the leadership election.

A populist politician who lost to Patterson in the PNP’s leadership contest in 1992, Simpson Miller is this time facing three challengers, the most formidable being the security minister, Dr Peter Phillips, who has the backing of most of the party machinery.

Also in the race is the finance minister, Dr Omar Davies, as well as former cabinet minister and PNP vice-president Dr Karl Blythe.

Opinion polls show Simpson Miller the overwhelming favourite in the contest, but there is no certainty that this will translate into delegate votes.

In fact, Simpson Miller’s campaign has raised the issue of the quality of the delegates’ list, fearing that other candidates have established “paper” delegates to ensure voting support.

However, the PNP secretariat has insisted that the list of a little over 4,000 delegates will be clean.