Tweet
PNP blames Portia
Comrades say party leader divisive, shows poor judgementBY ERICA VIRTUE Observer Writer virtuee@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, January 28, 2008
PORTIA Simpson Miller's poor and divisive leadership has been blamed by People's National Party (PNP) supporters for the party's loss at the September 3, 2007 general elections, an appraisal commissioned by the party has shown.
The appraisal team, headed by University of the West Indies lecturer, Professor Brian Meeks, also found that Simpson Miller waited too long to call the general elections and that the party entered the polls under the weight of the disunity created by its internal presidential contest that ended with Simpson Miller's victory in February 2006.
People's National Party president, Portia Simpson Miller, greets the party's new general secretary, Peter Bunting, with a kiss at yesterday's meeting of its National Executive Council at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)
".The party began to suffer from post-presidential contest disunity, problems associated with the re-verification process for some 260,000 potential electors and a turbulent candidate selection process and the lack of money. Organisational weakness and a lack of cohesiveness came to haunt the party.," said the report, a copy of which was obtained by the Observer.
The report has not yet been released to the public, but copies were on sale to the party's National Executive Council (NEC) members at their meeting at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston yesterday where businessman and Manchester Central member of Parliament, Peter Bunting, was ushered in unopposed as the PNP's new general-secretary.
Yesterday, party officials said the appraisal would be posted on the PNP's website.
The appraisal, which was commissioned within weeks after the general election defeat, was also supported by a Don Anderson poll, which, party sources said, was almost in sync with the Meeks report.
The appraisal was critical of the party's leadership and its conduct of the elections, while comrades came down heavy on Simpson Miller.
In the narrative summary it concluded that the 2005 presidential campaign was long and expensive and was a main contributor to the disunity in the party.
In addition, the alienation of party stalwarts by Simpson Miller's supporters, who were in turn blasted for their failure to present a united front, was also highlighted as contributing to the ongoing disunity.
According to the findings, the party leader's 78 per cent national popularity rating early in her term could only have dropped, and her decision for the long wait to call the general elections was also questioned.
Simpson Miller had originally called the general elections for August 27, but was forced to push the polls back to September 3 after Hurricane Dean destroyed sections of the island on August 9.
The appraisal criticised Simpson Miller for deflating the energy of the comrades by naming August 27 as the election date, and the decision was cited as "putting more stress on an exhausted organisation."
But the harshest criticisms of the party president came in the canvassed views of party supporters included as appendix 111.3.
The top six errors were cited as:
. The poor judgment displayed by the party leader in refusing to embrace for Dr Peter Phillips after her elevation to the office of the Prime Minister;
. The undermining and alienation of known party stalwarts by members of her team (because they did not support her in the presidential bid);
. The Paul and Angela Burke factor (the only voice of the party);
. The Phillip Paulwell debacle(s) and her strong defence of Paulwell in the National Debate;
. The (mis)handling of the Trafigura matter and later the Solutrea matter;
. The lack of the party to engage the business community/middle class in any meaningful way in the 17 months of her leadership (and her failure to make linkages between jobs which could be created by the middle class to drive her vision of poverty reduction.
Simpson Miller's performance in the national debates was also criticised.
The findings were among 14 contained in the appendix.
But it was not all doom and gloom for the party which received 67 recommendations on the way forward, the main being recommendation 67 which says the, "PNP needs to once again become synonymous with development and progress and not as it currently appears to be synonymous with corruption, nepotism and mediocrity."
Yesterday, Bunting, in a post-NEC press conference, pledged his support for the party and its leadership, and said that during his tenure he will seek to restore the party's "reputation for integrity, as it had before" in line with concerns raised by life members of the PNP.
Party chairman, Robert Pickersgill, said the party president has called a meeting of all the spokespersons for today as its seeks to rebuild the party's image.
Comrades say party leader divisive, shows poor judgementBY ERICA VIRTUE Observer Writer virtuee@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, January 28, 2008
PORTIA Simpson Miller's poor and divisive leadership has been blamed by People's National Party (PNP) supporters for the party's loss at the September 3, 2007 general elections, an appraisal commissioned by the party has shown.
The appraisal team, headed by University of the West Indies lecturer, Professor Brian Meeks, also found that Simpson Miller waited too long to call the general elections and that the party entered the polls under the weight of the disunity created by its internal presidential contest that ended with Simpson Miller's victory in February 2006.
People's National Party president, Portia Simpson Miller, greets the party's new general secretary, Peter Bunting, with a kiss at yesterday's meeting of its National Executive Council at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston. (Photo: Garfield Robinson) ".The party began to suffer from post-presidential contest disunity, problems associated with the re-verification process for some 260,000 potential electors and a turbulent candidate selection process and the lack of money. Organisational weakness and a lack of cohesiveness came to haunt the party.," said the report, a copy of which was obtained by the Observer.
The report has not yet been released to the public, but copies were on sale to the party's National Executive Council (NEC) members at their meeting at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston yesterday where businessman and Manchester Central member of Parliament, Peter Bunting, was ushered in unopposed as the PNP's new general-secretary.
Yesterday, party officials said the appraisal would be posted on the PNP's website.
The appraisal, which was commissioned within weeks after the general election defeat, was also supported by a Don Anderson poll, which, party sources said, was almost in sync with the Meeks report.
The appraisal was critical of the party's leadership and its conduct of the elections, while comrades came down heavy on Simpson Miller.
In the narrative summary it concluded that the 2005 presidential campaign was long and expensive and was a main contributor to the disunity in the party.
In addition, the alienation of party stalwarts by Simpson Miller's supporters, who were in turn blasted for their failure to present a united front, was also highlighted as contributing to the ongoing disunity.
According to the findings, the party leader's 78 per cent national popularity rating early in her term could only have dropped, and her decision for the long wait to call the general elections was also questioned.
Simpson Miller had originally called the general elections for August 27, but was forced to push the polls back to September 3 after Hurricane Dean destroyed sections of the island on August 9.
The appraisal criticised Simpson Miller for deflating the energy of the comrades by naming August 27 as the election date, and the decision was cited as "putting more stress on an exhausted organisation."
But the harshest criticisms of the party president came in the canvassed views of party supporters included as appendix 111.3.
The top six errors were cited as:
. The poor judgment displayed by the party leader in refusing to embrace for Dr Peter Phillips after her elevation to the office of the Prime Minister;
. The undermining and alienation of known party stalwarts by members of her team (because they did not support her in the presidential bid);
. The Paul and Angela Burke factor (the only voice of the party);
. The Phillip Paulwell debacle(s) and her strong defence of Paulwell in the National Debate;
. The (mis)handling of the Trafigura matter and later the Solutrea matter;
. The lack of the party to engage the business community/middle class in any meaningful way in the 17 months of her leadership (and her failure to make linkages between jobs which could be created by the middle class to drive her vision of poverty reduction.
Simpson Miller's performance in the national debates was also criticised.
The findings were among 14 contained in the appendix.
But it was not all doom and gloom for the party which received 67 recommendations on the way forward, the main being recommendation 67 which says the, "PNP needs to once again become synonymous with development and progress and not as it currently appears to be synonymous with corruption, nepotism and mediocrity."
Yesterday, Bunting, in a post-NEC press conference, pledged his support for the party and its leadership, and said that during his tenure he will seek to restore the party's "reputation for integrity, as it had before" in line with concerns raised by life members of the PNP.
Party chairman, Robert Pickersgill, said the party president has called a meeting of all the spokespersons for today as its seeks to rebuild the party's image.
Comment