THE controversy surrounding the fight for the leadership of the People’s National Party (PNP) deepened yesterday with the Dr Peter Phillips-led OnePNP team alleging that the Peter Bunting-led Rise United team has been involved in vote-buying.

Forty-eight hours before PNP delegates elect its next president, communications director for OnePNP Lisa Hanna fired the first salvo yesterday as she responded to a question at a media briefing.

Hanna alleged that she had evidence that the Rise United team was paying out money to convince delegates to vote for Bunting.

“Our campaign has been one that has focussed on keeping the integrity of the values and principles of the People’s National Party,” said Hanna.

“I can say, with certainty and clarity, and evidence, that even in my constituency yesterday (Tuesday) morning at 8:00 am, a leader of the Rise [United] team was there offering and giving and issuing envelopes containing $10,000. And every time he went to a delegate and left the envelope, I was called,” charged Hanna, who is the Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern.

But campaign manager for Rise United Dr Dayton Campbell was quick to reject this claim, telling the Jamaica Observer that his team was headed for victory and not involved in giving anybody anything in exchange for their vote.

“In the political process, we are travelling around the country engaging the delegates. We have designed a part of our campaign where we actually attempt to do house-to-house [visits] and meet the delegates, and not just call them on the phone, but have our leaders turn up at their homes in the remote parts of the island,” said Campbell.

He argued that this is something the delegates are not used to, but the Rise United team has found it effective to eyeball the delegates as it seeks their support.

“If I am in a community and I am speaking with a delegate, and I buy a drink and the delegate has a drink as well, I think that is just comradeship on display. That is just showing compassion and humanity. I don’t understand what would be the difficulty in doing that.

“As a matter of fact, I would scold the OnePNP members if when they are meeting with the delegates, and if they are having lunch and they don’t extend an invitation to the delegates to have lunch,” added Campbell.

He charged that the OnePNP team has seen that its numbers are not adding up, so it has resorted to trying to detract from the real issues of the campaign.

“We have run a campaign with a message that we are going to modernise the party, that we are going to create an endowment fund for those who have served the party well, and we have followed through on that so persons will know that we are not talking about it, but we are seeking to implement what is much needed,” Campbell added.

The endowment fund proposed by the Rise United team has also become a bone of contention between the two camps, with chairman of the OnePNP campaign KD Knight on Tuesday charging that it was a “despicable attempt to use money to grab power”.

Yesterday, Knight kept up his broadside as he hinted that the concept of an endowment fund was Phillips’s idea, which the Rise United team borrowed and sought to dupe the workers of the party into believing that it had originated from them.

“Peter David Phillips, the leader…came up with an idea of how could the People’s National Party assist those persons who have been the engine of success, and he commissioned a study to be done…and that brainchild was being nurtured and developed to be announced,” said Knight.

“In July of this year, at our National Executive Council meeting, a report was presented…at the stage at which this idea was reached, and persons applauded because they saw the progress. In recent hours we have heard that there was a plan to have an endowment (fund), which we applaud because it is our idea,” Knight added, arguing that Phillips should be applauded for the idea.

But Campbell scoffed at this claim, expressing disappointment that the OnePNP camp would question a scheme designed to assist individuals who have worked hard for the party, over many years, and who have fallen on hard times.

“This idea has been out for three months and OnePNP never said, at any point during that time, that it was their idea, or that they were opposed to it, because they thought it was just a talk and we were not going to act on it,” said Campbell, noting that his team had also proposed workshops to ensure that Comrades can plan ahead and not fall on hard times.

According to Campbell, this attempt to claim paternity for the scheme is as a result of the OnePNP team facing backlash from Comrades who are upset the Phillips backers have said it should not be implemented.