KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Debates Commission (JDC) has expressed satisfaction with the first debate in the 2025 general election series.

Citing the decision to scrap opening statements, the JDC said in total, 22 questions were posed and even though the debaters mostly used the maximum time allowed for answers, rebuttals, questions and closing comments, there were two more rounds of questions, answers and responses compared to the average.

“This is a 10 per cent increase. As such, the objective of getting more questions and answers by the removal of the opening statements was achieved,” it said.

The Social Issues Debate, staged at the Creative Production and Training Centre in Kingston, featured three-person teams from the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the People’s National Party (PNP).

Nineteen main questions were posed to the teams by three questioners comprising journalists Natalie Campbell of Irie FM and Romardo Lyons of Television Jamaica (TVJ).

The third questioner, Amoy Harriot of CVM Television, posed eight of the queries taken from social media platforms. The moderator of the debate was Janella Precius of TVJ.

There were also two follow-up questions from the journalists as they sought clarification on answers given, while each team was also permitted to pose a question to their opponents.

JDC Chairman Brian Schmidt said, “The JDC is looking forward to the presentation of the remaining debates. These are The Economy on Tuesday, August 26 and The Leaders on Thursday August 28. Both debates will begin at 9:00 pm and can be accessed by local TV and radio as well as in the digital space. We were also pleased that we enjoyed a very high level of public engagement and continued to receive questions from the public after the debate. The public is invited to send their questions by direct message @jamaicadebates.”