Former People’s National Party (PNP) general secretary Paul Burke is blaming a vocal minority for the vitriol which has marked the opening rounds of the contest between Dr Peter Phillips and Peter Bunting for the leadership of the party.

Comrades have been going at each other, particularly on social media, in a crass and vulgar start to the campaign prompting PNP officer emeritus AJ Nicholson to bemoan their behaviour.

“The present output, in particular on social media, is not what is expected from membership of our party which, with its undoubted warts, boasts such a respectable tradition in this regard. A powerful message could be sent should both contestants for the presidency of NW’s (Norman Washington Manley) party move to publicly address that issue now, and to do so together.

“They must quickly be seen to lead meaningfully in that promotional space. And, what is more, that kind of example, and insistence, will help to smooth the path for the necessary bridge-building that must begin when the last vote comes to be counted,” said Nicholson.

The nasty comments have forced the party to activate an election monitoring committee long before the July 22 opening of the nomination period as is its usual custom.

Instead the party’s chairman Fitz Jackson, Stacey Knight, Michael Vascianna, Aloun Assamba and Burchell Whiteman, have been given the job of monitoring the behaviour of Comrades even before the signing of a code of conduct for the election.

But Burke has argued that the majority of PNP members are prepared to take part in the election without the mudslinging of the minority.

According to Burke, if the party has 40,000 registered members, which would translate to approximately 4,000 delegates who would be eligible to vote in the presidential race, it would take only a handful of supporters to make the contest appear to be nasty.

“Let us say 10 PNP members on each side are very articulate, vocal and nasty, it can give the impression, because there is a silent majority, that there is so much nastiness and warfare going on,” Burke told the Jamaica Observer.

“If 99 per cent of our members are very civil, have discussions, have debate, agree to disagree, laugh it off and are still Comrades, there are few who feel very passionate and go to social media about their choice and sometimes their language is not good.

“That is what needs to be corrected and as Comrades, we need to disagree respectfully. But it is really a minority. I don’t think you can count 10 people in each camp who have been out of line and that cannot represent the more than 40,000 PNP members” added Burke.

The veteran member of the PNP further argued that with the majority of its members taking the Bunting challenge in stride, there should be little difficulty for the party to return united after the September 7 election.

“Some people will feel very passionate but I expect that most people will [accept the result], but in all contests there will be some people who will not go forward with a particular candidate.

“After a time most of them will come around and say the party is bigger but there are some people who have some strong feelings when it comes to their candidate,” Burke noted.

He added that the problem getting the PNP reunited after the leadership race will be more related to the absence of a philosophical position that glues Comrades.

“We have it on paper but in reality, or in practice, we don’t have a philosophical position that persons can say, ‘my party stands for this and it doesn’t matter who is the candidate, I will stand for my party’,” added Burke.

The former general secretary said he is very clear as to which Peter he will support in the race but argued that he would not make that public until he makes the disclosure inside a PNP forum.

He, however, underscored that the support of members of parliament, councillors and caretakers for each candidate is not as important as both camps are making it out to be.

Since Bunting announced his intention to challenge Phillips, 10 MPs have declared their support for the sitting president while nine have sided with the challenger.

But it is already clear that the delegates will not necessarily line up behind their MP as in the case of Kingston Central, where despite Ronald Thwaites declaration of his support for Bunting, several delegates from the constituency have indicated their intention to vote for Phillips who is supported by the recently elected caretaker/candidate Imani Duncan-Price.

“The support of the MPs and counsellors is a good psychological platform. They have influence with their respective delegates but no one knows what the delegates will do when he or she goes behind that booth.

“But it does give a good indication in terms of where the top leadership of the party is going and both camps are fully aware that MP support does not translate to100 per cent delegate support in their respective constituencies or divisions,” declared Burke.