KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) has expressed concern about what it classifies as “the careless comments of a public official” made in a political party’s advertisement, which appears on social media.

In a statement today, PSOJ said the advertisement has “an untruthful distortion of the facts of the divestment of a property in Bernard Lodge, so as to give the impression that the investor in the property was in collusion with corrupt elements in the government to deprive farmers of their rights”.

It said the consequence of this careless behaviour could be permanent damage to investor confidence in general and the endangerment of the personal security of the particular investor.

The organisation said it deplores “this careless and scurrilous type of political campaigning and reiterates our calls for both political parties to cease and desist from gutter politics and mudslinging in the current contest for the East Portland constituency and all future elections”.

While the PSOJ commended the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) on its “persistent and successful” efforts in implementing legislation to govern election campaign finance contributions, it urged the commission and Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment Brown to redouble their efforts to contain careless types of political campaigning.

At the ECJ campaign financing public awareness forum hosted by the PSOJ recently, Howard Mitchell, President of the ECJ emphasised that: “Every Jamaican should be on the alert for breaches of this legislation because politicians are spending money donated in good faith in a manner contrary to its purpose.”

The PSOJ, in its statement, noted that under this legislation the ECJ has the authority to investigate campaign advertisements and to report breaches in that space to the broadcasting commission.

The organisation also expressed that the people of Jamaica deserve and should demand leaders who are worthy of emulation and reiterated its support for the ECJ and the Political Ombudsman in preserving the integrity of democracy and the progress of the nation.