ATTORNEY-General Senator A J Nicholson said Friday that it has always been the practice of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) that the attorney-general should also be the party’s legal adviser.

Nicholson told the Senate that there had never been any suggestion – inside or outside the party – of a conflict of interest or impropriety in that practice until the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) raised the matter recently.

In fact, he accused the JLP of seeking political traction from the issue.

“Any dispute or legal issues arising between the party and any external entity would not be dealt with by me, but by an attorney employed for that purpose,” Nicholson explained.

However, Nicholson tried to deflect the gravity of the issue of the dual roles to that of a prime minister, or Leader of the Opposition, also being leader of a political party. He said that this was a greater danger, requiring constantly guarding against placing the interest of the party above that of the nation.

“In the Westminster system, therefore, it is the integrity of the holder of the office and his or her willingness to adhere to certain principles that provide the anchor for how the system is meant to work,” he said.

Senator Nicholson was responding to a statement made in the Senate on November 3 by Opposition member Dr Christopher Tufton that there is a conflict of interest in him being both the country’s attorney-general and the legal adviser to the ruling party.

Tufton had suggested that Nicholson should not continue in the dual role after his apology last month for defending the PNP against criticisms related to the Trafigura political donation scandal was said to have compromised his position as attorney-general.

“With the likelihood of this matter [Trafigura] reaching the courts, we are forced to ask, on whose side does the attorney-general speak on this matter? The people, or his political party? Is it arrogance or ignorance that causes him to want to speak for both?” Tufton asked then.

But Friday, in his prepared text, as he made his contribution to the Senate’s prolonged State of the Nation debate, Senator Nicholson avoided commenting on the controversial Trafigura issue, except for a faint reference to the role played by Opposition Leader Bruce Golding.

“The interest of the party must never take precedence over the interest of the country,” said Nicholson.

“All of us in this Senate and the wider public of Jamaica will, in the final analysis, ask himself whether that delicate balance was achieved by the leader of the opposition in the manner in which he made the revelations and how he handled the recent controversy.”

But after constant heckling from Opposition members to address the Trafigura issue, Nicholson claimed that campaign financing was developing into the JLP’s Achilles heel.

“You want Trafigura. Listen, you know, you have attacked us frontally on this matter of campaign financing. The people of Jamaica, including yourselves, are wondering whether this issue of campaign financing is not your Achilles heel.”

This led to a noisy exchange between the two sides.

Senator Nicholson said that there was a misconception of the role of the legal adviser to the PNP.

The party’s activities have been based on a written constitution. The primary role of the legal adviser is to:

. advise, wherever necessary, on the interpretation of the rules of conduct to determine if any act, or omission, constituted a breach;

. deal with matters of internal party discipline referred to him;

. participate in the holding of disciplinary tribunals;

. keep the operation of the constitution under constant review; and

. make recommendations in respect of proposals for changes in

the constitution.