THE ruling People’s National Party (PNP), cracking under the weight of an increasingly bitter leadership campaign, says it will bring all four presidential aspirants together at a “public forum” following the close of nominations on February 3, in an obvious effort to reunite the party.

“At the end of the nomination process next week Friday, we will be having this forum to bring all the contenders together in order to present them formally to the public,” PNP deputy general secretary Colin Campbell told the Observer last night.

The forum, Campbell said, will be held at the party headquarters on Old Hope Road in Kingston.

Over the last two weeks, the campaign by four of the PNP’s senior officials – vice-presidents Portia Simpson Miller, Dr Peter Phillips and Dr Karl Blythe, as well as Dr Omar Davies, who chairs the party’s powerful Region 3 – to replace president P J Patterson, has grown divisive and coarse with charges and counter charges of attempts at bribery and the painting of nasty graffiti about Simpson Miller in St Thomas.

Last Sunday, in an apparent effort to stop the haemorrhaging, Patterson insisted that the candidates and their handlers sign a code of conduct holding them to decency and reminded them that it was “not worth winning at any price”.

“I want to ensure that at the end of the process the PNP remains united and strong as it has been in the last 14 years,” Patterson said at a meeting of the PNP’s National Executive Council in Kingston where he announced that the election to choose his successor would be held on February 25.

But on the same day that Patterson spoke, Simpson Miller’s campaign team asked PNP general secretary Burchell Whiteman to probe allegations of the use of state funds to bribe delegates.

Team Portia also asked Whiteman to investigate charges that dedicated funds from the Ministry of National Security’s Community Security Initiative, introduced last year to finance programmes to divert youth in inner-city communities from turning to crime as well as to fund the refurbishing and repair of police stations, were being used to sway delegates.

The Simpson Miller team also asked that information be provided regarding all spending on the National Road Fund, a transport and works ministry programme which is chaired by Simpson Miller’s chief fundraiser Prakash Vaswani. That request was apparently made to respond to queries from the Phillips camp.

Simpson Miller, the local government minister, and Phillips, the national security minister, are regarded as the front runners for the post.

The allegations have led to the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party calling for an investigation by the auditor-general, and Phillips, Simpson Miller and the PNP have all welcomed the suggestion.

Nominations for the PNP presidency opened yesterday, but none of the announced contenders submitted their forms.

According to the party’s constitution, any member of the PNP in good standing – meaning that they are up-to-date in terms of their meeting, group or executive membership requirements, including proper financial standing, can be nominated for the top post.

The contenders have up to February 3 to submit their applications, which will be vetted by Whiteman.

Sources at the PNP secretariat said it was more than likely that the aspirants would be nominated closer to the cut-off date.

Approximately 4,000 delegates will have the task of selecting the new president, who is likely to be named prime minister by the end of the legislative year on March 31.

So far, the PNP Secretariat has received 200 selection forms from its 2,700 groups, covering roughly 10 per cent of the delegate count.

Deputy general secretary with responsibility for organisation, Maureen Webber, told the Observer that she expected a flood of forms to be received closer to the cut-off date of February 6.

Patterson became the leader of the PNP and prime minister of Jamaica in March 1992 on the retirement of the late Michael Manley. At the time, Patterson defeated Simpson Miller for the post.

He had announced from as far back as 2002 at an annual conference of the party that he would not lead the PNP in another general election.

– bellanfanted@jamaicaobserver.com