PEOPLE’S National Party President Mark Golding is keeping quiet, publicly, about the situation that has left the 83-year-old party struggling to fend off further criticism about its quest to achieve unity, following the resignation of its four vice-presidents and its chairman on Friday.

Golding, who was elected president of the party last November, after he defeated Lisa Hanna for the organisation’s most senior position, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that he has opted not to comment on the situation that has again unsettled Jamaica’s oldest relevant political party.

“I think it best that I refrain from making a comment at this time,” Golding said in a message sent via WhatsApp to the Sunday Observer.

The lawyer and businessman by profession also scoffed at a suggestion by the Sunday Observer that there could be a potential challenge to his position as leader of the Opposition. Asked to comment on whether or not he was aware of a plot to replace him as Opposition leader, Golding responded: “Not aware of any such plot.”

But all day yesterday, social media buffs argued that a group of PNP Members of Parliament were contemplating writing to Governor General Patrick Allen to inform him that they, by majority, wished to usher in MP for St Andrew South Eastern, and former party general secretary, Julian Robinson as the new Leader of the Opposition. The Sunday Observer understands that Robinson has dismissed the possibility of anything like that happening.

Later in the day, Robinson responded thus on social media: “There is a post on social media which associated my name with a move to name a new Opposition leader. I wish to make it clear that I am not a part of any such move and remain committed to playing my role in the building of the party. I spent most of today in a workshop with targeted divisions in Region 3 in preparations for the local government elections.”

But it did not stop the suggestions from flowing, among them that nine of the 14 members of the House of Representatives were interested in having Golding replaced by Robinson. The names mentioned were Natalie Neita Garvey, Hanna, Dr Peter Phillips, Denise Daley, Fitz Jackson, Dr Morais Guy, Mikael Phillips, Lothian Cousins, and Phillip Paulwell.

The remaining MPs, Hugh Graham, Anthony Hylton, and Angella Brown Burke, would remain committed to Golding as Opposition leader, and the man thought to be best suited to restore order within the organisation, speculators have said.

The PNP’s annual conference, where the highest party decisions can be made, is expected to be held in its usual month of September, although details have been limited about how it will be done this year in light of COVID-19 protocols.

At close of nominations for president and vice-president on Friday, Golding was the sole nominee for the top post, while newcomers Eugene Kelly, a councillor in the St Andrew South Western constituency, and Norman Scott, mayor of Spanish Town, the St Catherine parish capital, joined former MPs Ian Hayles, and Richard Azan as those duly nominated for the four vice presidential slots.

Nominations may be taken from the floor at the annual conference but that would be a rarity, and unless the process is reopened to allow for a consensus team, it would be the first time in the PNP’s history that two sitting councillors would be approved as vice-presidents of the party.

History would also be made too, should the four nominees be certified at the conference, that no sitting MP would be serving as vice-president, not counting the period of 1983 to 1989 when no PNP MP sat in the Jamaican Parliament because of a boycott by the party, which did not contest the 1983 snap election called by Prime Minister Edward Seaga to protest what it termed a flawed voters’ list.