THE Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) yesterday denied it had breached the convention concerning the conduct of political activities during the staging of party conferences by opposing political parties.

The JLP was responding to a charge made Sunday by the president of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP), Portia Simpson Miller, that JLP leader Bruce Golding campaigned “very close” to the National Arena while the PNP’s 68th annual conference was in progress.

In a statement yesterday, the JLP said that Golding visited sections of East Rural St Andrew on Saturday as part of a long-standing schedule of constituency visits. The tour, the party said, commenced at Lindo’s Gap and continued through Dallas, Cave River, Bull Bay and Harbour View, where the tour ended.

“At no time was the touring party very close to the National Arena. No such tour was staged on Saturday when it was expected that large numbers of PNP supporters would be travelling to the National Arena for the public session of the PNP conference,” the JLP said yesterday.

The JLP said, too, that it was also concerned about the inflammatory statements made by the PNP president concerning tensions in the Mountain View area.

“For her to assert, without providing a shred of evidence that ‘instructions’ have been given that PNP supporters must not cross some mythical line can only be designed to induce fear and hostility among the different communities in the area and undermine the efforts of the Peace management Initiative.

“As we prepare for the next general elections, the PNP president needs to be mindful that the preservation of decency and mutual respect in the conduct of campaign activities is best secured not by making irresponsible and provocative accusations in a charged partisan environment, but through bi-partisan dialogue and engaging the institutional mechanisms that exist, including the police and the political ombudsman,” said the JLP.

At the same time, the party’s arm of young professionals, Generation 2000 (G2K), said yesterday that comments made at Sunday’s public session of the PNP conference by Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Ralph Gonsalves was another blatant interference in Jamaica’s internal political affairs.

Gonlsalves told supporters of the PNP that the regional movement, the Caribbean Community (Caricom), would suffer a setback if the PNP lost the next parliamentary election.

The people of Jamaica, said Gonsalves, should give Simpson Miller her own mandate and do the right thing by re-electing the PNP.

G2K said that while it did not oppose Gonsalves’ appearance at any function in Jamaica, it took strong exception to the content, tone and manner in which the Vincentian prime minister has attempted to repeatedly meddle in the internal political affairs of the Jamaican people. The group also questioned the appropriateness of the protocol of a person who is a current prime minister of another Caribbean country appearing on a political platform to denigrate another political party of that country.

“We caution Mr Gonsales in his future appearances to avoid making statements that risk compromising the future need of Caribbean countries to collaborate on important developmental issues irrespective of which party represents the people of Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

We further encourage the PNP to provide appropriate guidance to its guests who might not know better or are tempted to deviate from proper political protocol,” said the G2K.