WATCH: ‘All gloves are off’ said Dawes in response to death threats
ST CATHERINE, Jamaica – Dr Alfred Dawes, who was selected to represent the People’s National Party (PNP) in the St Catherine South Eastern constituency in the next general election, says since his selection by Mark Golding, he has been receiving death threats.
Dawes added that individuals have called him and threatened the life of him and his family, telling him his house is next, after the PNP constituency office was damaged by fire on Thursday night.
But, Dawes said he will not back down. He says the thugs have been enabled by those in the PNP who they support.
“When you cross that line of threatening my family, all gloves are off, and in deference to unity I thought about being silent about the matter, however, I am going to make this clear, I am going nowhere. I have been selected fair and square based on the party’s internal polls,” Dawes said.
He stated that he knows the names of comrades who were in the vehicle which was used to transport those who torched the PNP constituency office and the mastermind. Dawes says he will be turning the names over to the police.
“My silence has allowed a lot of misinformation, half-truths and blatant lies to take root. Chief among these is the assumption, or the statement that I lost the internal run-off. In every single constituency that has been polled, it is the win-ability, the electability of the candidate passing that bench-mark of 25 per cent that has been used. Nowhere in any constituency has the favorability polls been used to make any determination on a candidate’s ability to win an election,” Dawes stated.
Earlier this week it was announced that Dawes will represent the PNP in St Catherine South East.
On Friday, amid anger from PNP supporters in the constituency over the party’s choice of Dawes as its standard-bearer for the next general election, Councillor Fenley Douglas (Waterford Division) expressed confidence that comrades will eventually calm down and support the physician.
Douglas gave the assurance Friday after the PNP constituency office in Independence City, Portmore, was damaged by fire Thursday night.
Firefighters were unable to say what caused the blaze. They said that they received a call about 7:52 pm that a building was on fire and that a unit from the Portmore fire station responded.
“Since that red line was crossed, I have started my own investigations and I have the names of the persons who were in that car that started the fire and I know who was the mastermind behind the whole thing. I am going to be turning over the names to the police for their further investigations,” Dawes assured.
