The National Democratic Movement (NDM) has expressed disappointment in the “tone” of the 2016 election campaign.

“I am very disappointed and taken aback by the tone of the election campaign in terms of the level of discourse, where one party decided to make it be a referendum on somebody’s house and refusing to come to a national debate,” party leader Peter Townsend said.

He chided the People’s National Party (PNP) for its “contemptuous” action of “ducking” the debate and questioned the dire ramifications it will have on the country’s democratic process in future.

“If you feel that your policies are working so well, you should be happy to come to the people, you should want a debate, you should be the one demanding a debate because you have done so well. So all I can say is shame on the PNP for not wanting a debate,” he reasoned.

“I know there is no correlation between our cultures, but Donald Trump recently didn’t take part in the Iowa debate and he lost a whole caucus. I think there must be consequence of your action and I believe the private sector should sanction the PNP for not being in the debate by withdrawing funding from them,” he said.

Noting that the debates would be sponsored by the private sector, Townsend said the PNP has “dissed” the organisation and the Jamaican people.

“Come before the people and the independent panel of journalists and debate like civil people do,” the NDM head demanded. “Even Uganda where there is a dictator in charge, they are having an election this year and they are having a debate and the dictator is taking part in it,” he noted.

He encouraged Jamaicans to punish the PNP and “send a signal” to them.

“You cannot refuse to debate and run my country and want my vote. If we allow them to do this, the signal it will send in the future, the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) may be the one to do it… and the debate, is derailed,” he said.

The PNP has come under flak in the past weeks about its decision to not participate in a national debate. The party outlined conditions under which it would debate which it says have not been met and has led to their strong position on the debate.

The party has been insisting that it will not debate unless Opposition Leader Andrew Holness apologises to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and responds to questions surrounding his Beverly Hills property.

Townsend also demanded that the parties make the election about the issues.

“This election cannot be about Andrew Holness’s house. If it is an integrity matter or a police matter, there are channels for that,” he said when asked his opinion of the campaigning thus far.

“A former security minister and a Minister of Finance, a senior and veteran politician as Peter Philips should not come and make such a ‘Mickey Mouse’ of himself to now have it blowing up in his face like this. It’s embarrassing and I want them to get back to the agenda of the main event, which is the people’s business and put their policies on the table,” he continued.

The NDM believes that the PNP’s refusal to debate should not have caused the entire event to be cancelled, but should have given them the opportunity to present its policies to the people.

Townsend questioned whether the NDM was not “good enough” to debate the matter.

According to the Jamaica Debates Commission, for parties to participate in the debates they have to: have a registered office, have established national organisational structures; have conducted valid internal democratic elections of officers; have published a policy document which outlined their beliefs, visions and positions on a wide range of national issues; have published a manifesto which states their philosophy and plan for governing the country if elected; be actively campaigning with a recognised election team; becapable of forming the next government after general elections (that is they should have at least 32 candidates in the elections 2); have registered a 10 per cent showing in two nationally recognised opinion polls.