KINGSTON, Jamaica — Management consultant Dr Canute Thompson has withdrawn his acceptance to serve as the chairperson for the People’s National Party (PNP) election review committee.

The committee is tasked with assessing the reasons for the PNP’s performance in the 2020 general elections.

In a statement issued this morning, Dr Thompson said, “my reason for withdrawing is my having arrived at the opinion that the party has an abundance of insights available to it to inform the actions it needs to take and thus having regard to other demands on my time, I cannot make myself available for this activity.”

His statement continued:

“In arriving at this position, I have taken account of the findings and recommendations of the 2007 and 2016 Review Reports, and the extent to which the recommendations in those reports have been implemented. I am of the opinion that much can be learnt from those reports in the present circumstances as many of the subjects examined in those reports are included in the terms of reference for this review, which would no doubt reveal similar findings.”

He offered five reasons which he said contributed to the party’s performance, “most of which I have communicated to the party publicly (via newspaper articles) and privately via emails”.

• The party failed to communicate a clear vision to the country and even after the policy commission completed its work and proposed island-wide consultations for the leadership to share its policy proposals to citizens and get feedback so as to refine those positions, the party failed to implement the consultations;

• Extensive delays, and waiting until the last couple of weeks before the elections to highlight (market) the party’s and president’s strengths, accomplishments, and contributions;

• Insufficient attention paid to attracting and enumerating new members;

• Lack of engagement between the party and its members in constituencies;

• The failure to use social media creatively and extensively to communicate to citizens.

Dr Thompson said he will continue to offer his services to the party in other ways.