KINGSTON, Jamaica — Robert Pickersgill and Anthony Hylton have been returned as Peoples National Party (PNP) chairman and vice chairman respectively at the party’s National Executive Council meeting now underway in May Pen,  Clarendon.

Pickersgill, dubbed “chairman for life”, has served in the post for the past 24 years.

Comrades are in good spirits as they wait patiently outside the closed-door meeting where ballots are being cast for the other 11 other members of the party’s executive.

In the meantime it is understood that the controversial report authored by Treasurer Norman Horne — in which senior officers of the party were implicated in the misappropriation of election campaign funds — will not be discussed at the meeting.

A senior party member told OBSERVER ONLINE that it is a anticipated that the new executive team would treat that matter as priority.

Embattled general secretary Paul Burke is expected to step aside to make way for the election of Julian Robinson aspirant to the position, who now serves as deputy general secretary.

Alphea Saunders