KINGSTON, Jamaica – People’s National Party Leader Portia Simpson Miller has announced that she will not be seeking re-election as party president next September. 

Simpson Miller, who was addressing party members at a National Executive Council meeting in Cedar Grove, Portmore, St Catherine, said that “I will leave you as party leader but I will always be with you,” Simpson Miller said on Sunday.

Her announcement came on the heels of two major political defeats, the first in the February 25 General Election and then again on November 28, in the Local Government Election.

Many, including the youth arm of the party, Peoples National Party Youth Organisation (PNPYO), have since called on her to resign.

PNPYO has called for a change in the political vision being presented to the public, beginning with her as leader, as “the premier political movement in Jamaica, finds itself at a crossroads, where the noble institution has lost the faith, trust, and confidence of the majority of Jamaica’s people”.

Moya Hinds