HYACINTH Bennett’s National Democratic Movement (NDM) voted yesterday to create what was being called an “alliance” with two other small parties, but which seemed headed to a formal merger.

The two other members of the three-way hook-up are the Republic Party of Jamaica and the Rev Al Miller-led Jamaica Alliance for National Unity (JANU), the church-based group that had originally said it would support candidates for any party who met its principles.

It also emerged last night that the NDM had also been in merger talks with another small party, Antoinette Haughton-Cardenas’ United People’s Party (UPP) but these broke down over leadership.

“Basically, where the talks broke down, was after all the principles and the visions and the agreements were agreed to by the two negotiating teams, the president of the UPP did not want to face the democratic process,” the NDM’s general secretary, Michael Williams, told the Observer. “She wanted to be appointed leader of the alliance.”

Haughton-Cardenas could not be contacted last night for comment.

The NDM was formed in 1995 by former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) chairman, and Bruce Golding, who walked out of the JLP when he differed with the party over vision and direction. Several senior JLP politicians who were disaffected with the leadership of Edward Seaga joined Golding in the NDM.

The party, whose major plank was constitutional reform to lessen the centralisation of power, initially had strong showing in the opinion polls.

But with its weak performance in the 1997 general election and in a by-election just over a year ago, Golding stepped down as president, triggering a major haemorrhage in the party which Bennett has been unable to reverse.

It was apparently in recognition of the party’s increasing marginalisation that the NDM’s national council, the highest decision-making body outside its annual conference, voted to create the alliance with the Republic Party and JANU.

The group has not yet decided on a name, but officials say that it is likely to be something that links elements of the names of the constituent parts.

Neither Bennett nor Miller were immediately available for comment, but Williams said that the unanimous vote by the national council reflected what was felt to be the direction of the Jamaican people.

“We feel that the people of this country have been disappointed by the two older political parties … and we believe with the principles that have been agreed on within the alliance and with the input of the church, we will be able to offer something really different,” Williams said.

Williams said final agreement was reached late Saturday night and came after nearly seven weeks of talks between his party and the Denzil Taylor-led Republican Party. It appeared to have been helped along by JANU, which the NDM has been courting since late last year after Miller had invited all political parties to sign-on to the idea of forming a government of national unity.

“Yesterday’s meeting basically gave the movement the go-ahead to proceed with the discussions on the alliance,” Williams, told the Observer.

Williams said a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) governing the alliance was being prepared to be signed by all the parties.

“The actual memorandum of understanding (MOU) was presented to the meeting, but not in a written format,” he explained. “So, the meeting has mandated the executive, which is meeting on Wednesday, to go through all the details of the MOU and that will be signed-off on Wednesday.”

Taylor said that the expectation of the alliance was in keeping with the ideals of his party.

“We went through the details of the MOU and they are doing the final adjustments for us to sign but we are basically in agreement,” he said.

According to Williams the main feature of the alliance is for the creation of “a government of national unity which is 100 per cent against tribal politics”.

In terms of governance, Williams said the three organisations would form the core of the leadership.

“We are now working out the fine details of how the leadership will be either shared or determined as soon as we are ready with the press conference to come to the people,” he said.