Prime Minister and President of the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) Portia Simpson Miller has warned executive members of her party against fighting personal battles on social media.

Failure to respect her request to desist from washing their dirty clothes in the public space, the Prime Minister said, would result in “severe consequences”, she told a meeting of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC), the organisation’s second highest decision- making body.

The first is the party’s Annual Conference. The NEC meeting, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, last Sunday, also saw the party leader presenting all 63 candidates who will represent the PNP in the next general election, which those close to her believe will be held by February 2016.

Constitutionally, Jamaicans should go to the polls by the end of December 2016, but Simpson Miller is allowed a further three months to announce the date, which would take the country up to the end of March 2017. However, word emerged earlier this year that Simpson Miller would call an early election

. That information was later doused by the prime minister’s revelation in late November that she would not disenfranchise over 36,000 new voters whose names appear on the latest voters’ list, published November 30.

But it was at the NEC meeting that Simpson Miller vented her disgust at how members of her party were barking at each other like pooches at odds.

Apart from squabbles in deciding candidates in certain seats across Jamaica, the latest incident that apparently triggered the PNP president’s anger was the tracing match between Member of Parliament for St Andrew East Rural Damion Crawford and PNP Vice-President Angela Brown Burke, who is also mayor of Kingston.

Crawford opened the verbal bowling from the Eastern Caribbean end, when he posted on his Facebook page on December 10: “Thank God Angela Brown Burke’s punishment never extended to St Vincent; up here nice,” in reference to an invitation to address the youth rally of the ruling Unity Labour Party of Prime Minister Ralph Gonzalves, which subsequently triumphed eight seats to seven in the December 9 general election over the Opposition New Democratic Party, which has still not accepted the result.

Party insiders said Crawford, who is minister of state in the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, did not get Brown Burke’s support as he battled to keep his seat in a tense fight with businessman Peter Blake.

Brown Burke, however, has denied that claim. Sources inside the PNP added that Brown Burke’s husband, Paul Burke, the party’s general secretary, and chairman of the PNP’s Region Three, which comprises the Corporate Area, and Phillip Paulwell, also did not support Crawford.

Blake got the nod in the two-man race, but was later replaced by Senator Imani Duncan Price as the candidate for the next election. Crawford, also, was not supported by the same three when he was put forward as a compromise candidate for the Trelawny North seat.

In direct response to the Facebook post, Brown Burke stood up to Crawford with a straight bat: “Damion Crawford, lef mi name alone. Ask Ralph (Gonzalves) if a nuh me tell him fi mek you come.” Crawford responded: “Angela Brown Burke, Ralph not even mention you as someone to say hello to…ur influence nuh pass William Grant Park.”

Brown Burke, who is also a senator, fired the latest salvo: “I’m always grateful for my experience with my four boys. I’m used to dealing with childish behaviour and attention- seeking tantrums. I’m grateful too, that I’ve been able to act as a parent such that I’m now proud of the men you have become.

I pray for continued wisdom to deal with other childish behaviour from ‘adults’ around.” Simpson Miller, though, has had enough of the social media exchanges and did not mince words at the NEC meeting. “All of you who are talking on social media, you need to stop it.

As leaders you cannot behave like that. Leaders are supposed to set examples for all others to follow. You would never do that under Michael Manley, so why do you do it under my leadership,” said the prime minister, who celebrated her 70th birthday on the previous day, December 12, two days after the 91st anniversary of Michael Manley’s birth.

“I am warning you, don’t test me. I came through the system the hard way, so don’t test me,” she repeated. “If you continue to behave like that on social media, there will be severe consequences,” she said to applause, including a subdued one from Brown Burke who sat close to her.

The NEC meeting was told that the PNP had surged ahead of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party by a slender margin in the latest unpublished opinion poll, but officials continue to be concerned about the waning fortunes of some sitting members of the House of Representatives and their ability to hold onto key seats that will have a positive effect on the party’s chances in the election.

Among the seats that Simpson Miller and the party are concerned about are St Andrew Eastern, represented by Andre Hylton; St Mary South East (Dr Winston Green); St Mary Western (Jolyan Silvera); Portland Eastern (Dr Lynvale Bloomfield); St James Central, which will be represented by attorney-at-law and former JLP member Ashley- Ann Foster, who has replaced the incumbent Lloyd B Smith; St Elizabeth South West, which has Hugh Buchanan as its MP who defeated Dr Chris Tufton by 13 votes in 2011; St Ann South West, which has Keith Walford as the sitting MP; Hanover Eastern, which was won by a mere 10 votes by outgoing MP Dr DK Duncan.

On the other hand, the PNP hierarchy appears to be encouraged by what one veteran described as “strong gains” made in constituencies now held by JLP MPs, including Patricia Duncan Sutherland in Clarendon South East, represented by trade unionist Ruddy Spencer, who beat Dereck Lambert by 107 votes in 2011; cricketer Darren Powell in St Elizabeth North West, a seat held by veteran JC Hutchinson, who scored an 866-vote win over the PNP’s Richard Rowe in 2011; Noel Donaldson in St James East Central held by Edmund Bartlett; Val Wint, who lost Manchester North East by 573 votes to the incumbent Audley Shaw in 2011, and Rudyard ‘Kippy’ Mears in St Catherine South West, who is going up against firebrand MP Everald Warmington, known for his disrespectful behaviour, particularly to journalists. Warmington beat the PNP’s Anthony Ewbanks by 926 votes last time.

Although the parties have said they have taken a break from campaigning in observance of the Christmas season, candidates are still busy visiting constituencies to shore up support.