THE ruling People’s National Party, after months of campaigning, will today choose a new president to succeed its outgoing leader, P J Patterson, the prime minister.

Three Cabinet ministers – Omar Davies, Peter Phillips and Portia Simpson Miller – and backbencher Karl Blythe will be vying for the votes of the almost 4,000 delegates in today’s presidential election at Jamaica College in Kingston to become the fourth president of the PNP, formed in 1938.

Senior officials from the PNP’s secretariat, after a late afternoon tour yesterday at Jamaica College, said things were in place for today’s crucial vote.

Party officials were accompanied by members of the security forces and volunteers and representatives of the four candidates.

In the meantime, the party’s deputy general secretary Maureen Webber said the list to be used today was “99 per cent accurate”.

“Only about one per cent of the appeals was not resolved in the way we would have wanted. But under normal circumstances there is a margin of error of 3.5 per cent, so we have done well,” Webber told the Observer last night.

Meanwhile, Julian Robinson, deputy general secretary, said no vehicular traffic will be allowed on the grounds of Jamaica College during the voting, which starts at 9:00 am and ends at 2:00 pm. Substitute delegates will vote between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm.

“This will be a sterile area and the first security checkpoint. Delegates will be dropped off at the gate, at the lower end of the college. They will be screened by regions (one to six) and they will proceed to the registration area,” Robinson told the Observer.

Delegates, he said, will be required to produce valid identification cards before being allowed to pass the first checkpoint.

“Passport, driver’s licence, national voters identification or a student identification will be required from delegates,” he said. “Anyone without any of the four, will be ushered to the appeals tent before they will be cleared to go forward,” said Robinson.

The appeal’s tribunal will include Desmond Leaky, Fred Hamaty, David Coore, A J Nicholson and Burchell Whiteman.

The tribunal’s decision will be final, said Robinson.

Meanwhile, the candidates ended their campaigning late last evening, in a last-minute bid to woo delegates.

The ‘Solid as a Rock’ campaign of Dr Peter Phillips, in a press conference yesterday afternoon, defended their tally of 2,611 delegates they expect to vote for their candidate.

Campaign director Paul Robertson claimed that Phillips was ahead in all regions and among all groups in the party.

“We are confident that the delegates will deliver today and elect Peter David Phillips as the next president of the PNP,” said Robertson.

But with Phillips claiming the support of 2,661 delegates and Portia Simpson Miller’s team expecting at least 1,770 votes, in addition to the support for Davies and Blythe, the figure would be pushed far past the just under 4,000 eligible to vote.

Roberston said their claims were based on canvas done in a “systematic way”.

Last night, Dr Phillips’ camp said he would meet with delegates, especially those from rural areas, at Curphey Place in Kingston, while Colin Campbell, media director for Team Portia, said Simpson Miller was scheduled for prayers last night at the World of Life Ministries on Hagley Park Road, Kingston after which she would “get a good night’s sleep” before today’s vote.

Meanwhile, Blythe was expected last night to hammer our final details with his 21st Century Team campaign at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

The counting of the ballots will take place at Jamaica College, while the announcement of the winner will be made by Patterson at the party’s headquarters on Old Hope Road.

Norman Manley, who led the party until 1969, was replaced by his younger son, Michael Manley, who went on to lead the party to victory in the 1972 general election. Manley served as prime minister until 1980, when the Edward Seaga-led Jamaica Labour Party sent the PNP packing in a landslide election defeat. The radical Manley, who was in the 1970s accused of trying to introduce Communism to Jamaica, boycotted the snap election of December 1983, and stayed in Opposition until February 1989, when a “new-look” PNP returned to power with its campaign “to put people first”.

Ill-health, however, forced Manley out of politics and in March 1992 he gave up the leadership of the PNP.

Patterson, during a short campaign for the PNP presidency, defeated Simpson Miller at a special delegates’ conference at the National Arena.

Patterson, who was later sworn in as prime minister, led the PNP to general election victories in 1993, 1997 and 2002.