MONTEGO BAY, St James – Breaking with a popular election tradition, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) yesterday slapped an immediate ban on all motorcades, describing them as “not cost effective” and encouraging indiscipline.

If ruling People’s National Party (PNP) candidate, Senator Trevor Munroe gets his way, the PNP would also scrap motorcades from its election campaign activities.

The JLP ban, which took immediate effect in the party’s Area Council Four – covering St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, St James and Trelawny – is soon to be adopted by the party’s other three Area Councils, said Dr Horace Chang, the deputy leader in charge of the party’s Area Council Four.

“Motorcades are costly, ineffective and they encourage indiscipline,” Chang told reporters at a press conference at the Pelican Restaurant in Montego Bay.

“I have seen the party leader (Bruce Golding) stop in the middle of the road, trying to get people to go back into the convoy… and this really doesn’t make sense,” Chang said.

Dr Chang, an experienced politician who is the current member of parliament for North-West St James, also questioned the level of political mileage that could be derived from staging motorcades.

“What you benefit from them (motorcades) politically is questionable because it involves negatives,” he stressed. “You go to a community which might be marginal and the indiscipline associated with the motorcade turns off some of the people who would probably vote for you, so it seems that there is nothing to be gained from them,” he argued.

In recent weeks, there have been several reported cases of violence and breaches of the road traffic regulations, associated with motorcades. Critics point in particular to motorcades running the red at traffic lights and intimidation of persons along motorcade routes by people in the convoys.

Chang’s announcement might have pre-empted a call last week by Munroe who is contesting the Eastern St Andrew seat on a PNP ticket. Munroe wanted all campaign motorcades banned after the date of the 2007 general election – constitutionally due in October but widely expected in July – is announced.

Yesterday, Dr Chang disclosed that instead of the motorcades, the party would be embarking on more house-to-house and community visits. These visits, he said, would be led by Golding and himself.

At the press conference, Chang used the opportunity to dismiss unsubstantiated claims circulating in Montego Bay that a rift had developed between himself and the JLP’s candidate for South St James, Noel Donaldson, arising out of an aborted tour of the constituency by Golding last week Friday.

Rumours spread like wildfire during the week that there had been a physical confrontation between Dr Chang and Donaldson, which had supposedly left the mayor nursing wounds to the head.

“There has been no differences between myself and Mayor Donaldson throughout his career in politics in Montego Bay, and certainly not since (last week) Friday,” Chang insisted.

He said since the tour was aborted “wild statements and rumours” had emerged out of what, he said, was “a simple and straight forward event”.

“We had planned a tour of sections of South St James and during the tour the leader (Golding) had to leave for Kingston to attend to some events that demanded his presence,” he said.

Charging that the reports were orchestrated by the ruling PNP because it was losing ground in the constituency of South St James, Chang said: “The rumours and negative comments about the JLP in St James is obviously designed to distract from the work of the candidate in that constituency.”

Donaldson, who was also in attendance at yesterday’s press conference, vowed that the “rumours” would derail his campaign to wrest the seat from current PNP MP Derrick Kellier.