The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) last night confirmed that it had pulled a radio advertisement about which the People’s National Party (PNP) had complained, but said the decision was made in deference to the family of a man whose death, due to inadequate health services, was highlighted, rather than in response to a call by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

“The prime minister had absolutely nothing to do with it,” JLP general secretary Karl Samuda told the Observer in response to a news release issued by the PNP stating that the Opposition party had withdrawn the ad in response to Simpson Miller’s appeal.

The PNP said that family members of the dead man had discussed the advertisement with Simpson Miller, indicating the trauma they underwent each time the advertisement was heard by them and their friends.

The PNP described the ad as “offensive, insensitive and false” and said that the deceased man was a worker for the ruling party.

Simpson Miller made her call for the ad to be withdrawn on Wednesday at a political rally in Junction, St Elizabeth. She said the ad was untruthful and had served to disrespect health workers at an unnamed hospital as well as the grieving relatives of the man, who had died following an accident in Junction recently.

Simpson Miller said that the man’s family expressed their concern when she visited them during a tour of the constituency earlier that day.

However, on Thursday, Generation 2000 (G2K), the JLP affiliate which sponsored the advertisement, said that it would only withdraw the ad highlighting the poor state of Jamaica’s health care system if instructed to do so by the political ombudsman or the leadership of the party.

Last night, the PNP said that as a result of the meeting with the family, the party General Secretary Donald Buchanan wrote to the political ombudsman, Herro Blair, seeking his intervention in the matter.

Samuda explained that after receiving, through G2K, a copy of the letter sent to Blair, which outlined the trauma being experienced by the family, JLP MP Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange spoke to two brothers of the deceased man.

“Based on that discussion, we took the decision to pull the ad, which was due to run its course yesterday,” said Samuda. “The final one was scheduled to be aired on Nationwide.”

Samuda said that while the JLP was sensitive to the feelings of the family, it held firm to the view that the advertisement served to highlight the deficiencies in the public health service.

The PNP, in its release, said Buchanan was “calling on all sides to observe decency and appropriate ethics, as the country heads toward the official campaign period”.

The party also said it would “do all in its power to observe proper decorum and civility” during the election campaign.