The final voters’ list to be used in the People’s National Party’s (PNP) presidential election next Saturday includes new members of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) who were elected last week.

The PNP’s secretariat yesterday indicated that last Friday evening the final voters’ list was presented to representatives of Dr Peter Phillips and Peter Bunting, who will face off for the leadership of the 81-year-old party on September 7.

Representatives of both sides were scheduled to meet with the secretariat late yesterday to check for any minor errors or corrections that needed to be made.

But Jamaica Observer sources have confirmed that the almost 3,000 delegates-long list includes new NEC members who were added despite strong views that this would not be in keeping with the party’s convention.

“Legal advice said that persons become members of the NEC once they are elected, and the secretariat had no option but to add them to the voters’ list and remove the ones they replaced unless those persons were already delegates through some other route,” said one PNP source as he pointed to a letter written to the party’s Chairman Fitz Jackson by former General Secretary Paul Burke.

In the letter, a copy of which has been seen by the Sunday Observer, Burke insisted that the new NEC members should be allowed to “immediately assume their rightful positions”.

He added: “I can somewhat understand the resistance of the overworked party secretariat in changing delegates at this time, but the constitution is the constitution and the rules are the rules”.

According to Burke, in 2014, while he served as general secretary of the PNP, he instructed the secretariat to apply the rules that NEC members from recognised constituencies, elected by their constituency conferences and regions, would have their NEC delegate status effective for the next annual conference, in accordance with the party’s constitution.

“If we were going by convention, there could have been no presidential challenge to an incumbent president in 2008, nor would there be a presidential challenge to an incumbent president in 2019,” argued Burke.

“The fact that many constituencies, and or regions, were not aware (of) their NEC members’ rights and that such elected NEC representatives assumed the position as soon as they were elected, and further, that the secretariat ignored this rule, does not negate the rule nor the right of those members,” added Burke.

He warned that the new NEC members could mount a court challenge over their disenfranchisement if they were not recognised immediately.

“We must be consistent. When group officers are elected they assume their posts immediately; when constituency officers and constituency committee members are elected, they assume their post immediately, when regional officers and NEC members are elected, they assume their posts immediately,” declared Burke.

Just under 3,000 delegates are on the final voters’ list for the presidential election, which will be administered by the Electoral Office of Jamaica.