Please keep it clean, Crawford appeals to supporters
DAMION Crawford has appealed to his supporters to keep his campaign clean as People’s National Party (PNP) delegates prepare to vote for four vice-presidents on Saturday.
“I beg of you, my supporters, to ignore any motivation to discredit another candidate. I beg that you restrain yourselves from even commenting on negative statements, whether it’s about me or any of the others. I beg that you rest easy for the next week knowing we have run a clean, energetic, fact-based campaign and we can be confident that the delegates will act based on what they perceive to be in the best interest of the party,” Crawford wrote in a Facebook post.
The Opposition senator, who is using the campaign slogan ‘Forward with Crawford’, is one of six aspirants for the positions. The others are incumbents Dr Fenton Ferguson, Dr Wykeham McNeil, and Dr Angela Brown Burke, as well as Phillip Paulwell, and Mikhail Phillips, son of PNP President Dr Peter Phillips.
Crawford told Comrades in his post that over the period of the campaign he had learnt a lot about his opponents whom he congratulated for running “a predominantly clean campaign”.
“I have learnt a lot about the others during the campaign and have come to admire all more than I did before, save and except for Wykeham whom I already knew very well,” Crawford said.
“I know that Wykeham is a calm, calculated individual who loves the party because of what it has done for him personally and what he has seen it do for the nation in general.
”I learnt that Paulwell is a very innovative individual, true to his word and loyal to the party and his people.
“I have learnt that Fenton is an elder statesman in every sense of the word, whose experience is not only great in quantity but also quality. That he seeks balance even as he seeks an advantage.
”I have learnt that Mikhail is more than just Peter’s son. He is a son of the nation who is independent in thought and committed to making his own mark standing on his own two feet.
“I have learnt that Angela is indeed stronger than many think and unafraid to face the fire… fuelled simply by her convictions. I have learnt that she is engined by her right to contribute and unwilling to give up or suspend that right,” Crawford said.
“All in all I have found them all to be worthy competitors and it’s for this reason I am asking all my supporters to keep it clean over the last week of the campaign. As anxiety builds, let us confirm in our minds and hearts that the ‘Forward’ campaign will win or lose with dignity,” he added.
Crawford, who jokingly labelled himself the PNP’s ‘Robin’ and party president Dr Phillips ‘Batman’, described the campaign as “a wonderful experience” and said he was looking forward to creating a youth manifesto so strong that Jamaicans will laugh at the suggestion of $5,000 to vote.
“I look forward to marketing this manifesto in every nook and cranny of our nation and I look forward to serving as vice-president while the PNP changes this nation again,” Crawford said.