Up to press time Friday evening Zuleika Jess had not responded to a decision by the executive committee of the People’s National Party (PNP) to throw out her nomination for a vice-president post in the political organisation.

Jess, an attorney-at-law, was nominated on Thursday ahead of Friday’s closure of nominations. However, her bid received resistance from the party secretariat.

On Friday morning, the PNP issued a release stating that Jess, who had contested the Clarendon Central seat for the party in the September 2020 General Election, was not eligible to contest the position due to a number of factors, among them that her “direct membership was suspended since no payment had been made since 2018”.

Additionally, the party said Jess’s “direct membership was then superseded and came to an end by her becoming a group member. However, her group subsequently went into abeyance”. As such, the PNP said her membership is now provisional, on account of her group being re-registered on January 31, 2022.

“In these circumstances, the legal advice received is that payments made at the time of nomination cannot retroactively revive her direct membership,” the party stated.

The PNP also said that under its constitution the eligibility requirements in order to be nominated for a vice-president post are that anyone so interested “….must have had membership in the party for a minimum five-year period, be a member of a recognised constituency committee, regional management committee or National Executive Council (NEC) member and must have at least 24 members signing their nomination papers, 12 of whom must be current members of the NEC from at least three regions.”

The party said that 35 members of the executive voted to reject Jess’s nomination, one member voted yes, two abstained, and four “did not vote for any of the options”.

The decision was slammed by Comrades, some of whom questioned why Jess was put forward as a candidate in the 2020 election if, as the party stated, her membership had not been paid up since 2018.

They also repeated a claim made by other Comrades on Thursday that the party had been trying to dissuade Jess from contesting the post as it wanted to avoid an election, as the PNP is still trying to heal wounds inflicted by a divisive and unsuccessful leadership challenge to Dr Peter Phillips by Peter Bunting in 2019.

Party insiders told the Jamaica Observer that during a contentious meeting at PNP headquarters on Thursday, the secretariat was bluntly told that if Jess was prevented from contesting the position the PNP would lose votes in the next local government election.

Conrad O’Brien, one of Jess’s supporters who was seen driving out of the premises, told that Observer that he left the meeting out of frustration.

“I was in the meeting and I’m quite upset, so I walked out… I’m certainly not pleased. They are trying to prevent her from nominating, and by virtue of that you would basically get her out of the race,” O’Brien said.

“If they decide not to have her nominate, then certainly she would not be able to offer herself, but that could be doubly problematic. I can’t say what people will do, but based on the kind of groundswell she has been receiving, I don’t think that people would basically take it very lightly, especially against the background that, from day one, persons were being called left, right, and centre to persuade her to withdraw her candidature,” he added.

“Should they take and hold that position it would be a very, very, very sad day for the People’s National Party,” he said.