President of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) Portia Simpson Miller will likely face a challenge to her leadership when the organisation holds its annual conference in September 2016, the Jamaica Observer has been told.
Simpson Miller, 70, will be taken on by a former Cabinet minister who retained his seat in the February 25 General Election won by the Jamaica Labour Party, which took 32 of the 63 seats in the House of Representatives, to the PNP’s 31.
Some of those closely working with the male individual have asked the Sunday Observer to refrain from mentioning his name at this time.
Although the margin of victory goes down in history as the closest since Jamaicans began voting in general elections in 1944, there is discontent that Simpson Miller’s leadership had most to do with the PNP making history as the first one-term administration by the party.
Calls have been coming for Simpson Miller, veteran Member of Parliament for St Andrew South West, to give up the leadership of the PNP, but sources close to her have told the Sunday Observer that she is in no hurry to place her bags in the departure lounge.
Now, the former Cabinet minister, who has never lost an election as a candidate, is bent on taking the plunge that could be detrimental to his chances of becoming party leader, should he fail in his bid to win over a majority of the near 5,000 delegates who would normally make the decision at the annual conference’s private session.
“Now is the time to take on Portia. The JLP is in its first year of a five-year Administration and so it is best to get the leadership challenge out of the way so that there can be healing by the party long before the next General Election comes around,” one party elder told the Sunday Observer, while confirming that plans were well advanced for the challenge to Simpson Miller to occur.
“The PNP has grown stale. Little or no progress has been made under Simpson Miller’s leadership. She does not even understand how an economy ought to be run, and even now she cannot stand up and address an issue off the cuff without having to be prepared by her handlers.
“That is not the party that Norman Manley, his son Michael, and PJ Patterson worked so hard to remain relevant,” another party senior said. “I am just so disappointed by all that has happened to the PNP in the last few years. This is not the party that some of us envisioned,” he said.
The Sunday Observer was told that Simpson Miller’s likely challenger has already been mobilising his team to do the groundwork, while he has been having dialogue with members of the PNP’s parliamentary group. In fact, party insiders had told the
Sunday Observer more than a year ago that he had been laying the foundation for his challenge by wooing support from among the parliamentary group.
Apart from a challenge for the top post in the PNP, indications are that the positions of senior officers – vice-presidents in particular – will also be up for contests.
The four vice-presidents are Dr Fenton Ferguson, Noel Arscott, Derrick Kellier and Angella Brown Burke. Apart from Dr Ferguson, the latter three publicly voiced their support for Simpson Miller during the last two presidential challenges.
The Sunday Observer can also report that embattled General Secretary Paul Burke, husband of Angella, has offered to resign from that post, but has asked to be kept on until the time of the annual conference in September.
Burke, who for many years remained loyal to Simpson Miller, had a torrid time during the election campaign, with criticisms flying left, right and centre about his stewardship of the party’s Secretariat. His offer to resign is an apparent move to prevent the party from relieving him of the position.
Simpson Miller is no stranger to challenges, as she lost in her first bid to become party leader in 1992, going down to Patterson when an opening to succeed the ailing Michael Manley arose.
However, she triumphed over Dr Peter Phillips, Dr Omar Davies and Dr Enoch Karl Blythe for the top party position in 2006, when Patterson decided to step down after serving for 14 unbroken years as prime minister.
Simpson Miller again triumphed in 2008 when Phillips challenged her for the leadership.
With Phillips not willing to face off with her again in another leadership contest, younger party officials have sensed the opportunity to come forward.
Names such as Lisa Hanna, MP for St Ann South East and former youth and culture minister; Julian Robinson, MP for St Andrew South East and former minister of state in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Mining and Energy; Peter Bunting, former minister of national security and MP for Manchester Central; Dr Wykeham McNeill, a former minister of tourism who has been MP for Westmoreland Western; and Dr Dayton Campbell, MP for St Ann South West, have been suggested as potential party leaders.
Former minister of industry and commerce George Anthony Hylton, and former minister of science, technology, energy and mining Phillip Paulwell have also been suggested as potential leaders, although in the case of the former, party officials have dismissed it as mere wishful thinking on his part.
