Jamaica Labour Party Official Disappointed Over Strategic Report Was Leaked To Media

KINGSTON, Jamaica CMC – A senior official of the main opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says he is disappointed that a strategic report on the party’s performance in the 2011 general election has been released to the media.

The report highlights at least 25 reasons why the JLP lost the general election to the People’s National Party (PNP) including disunity within the party, a weak party machinery, faulty candidate selection as well as a neglected and disillusioned party base.

The report by the five-member Independent Strategic Review Commission, also pointed out that the circumstances surrounding the extradition of wanted drug dealer Christopher “Dudus” Coke to the United states played a primary role in the party’s defeat in the general election.

The report will be released to officers of the JLP this week, as the party prepares for its 70^th annual conference, scheduled for Sunday. The highlight of the conference will be the election of a new leader with the incumbent and former Prime Minister Andrew Holness facing a challenge from his former finance minister and deputy leader, Audley Shaw.

JLP deputy general secretary, Dr. Andrew Wheatley, said the release of the report to the media was interesting adding “whoever released such a document does not have the best interest of the JLP at heart.

“The reportage validates suspicions the (JLP) leader has had about how often, and by what source, internal information finds its way to the media via party members who should have the best interest of the party at heart.

“We are very concerned that a report that should be used as a tool to reform and build the party is now being abused in the current leadership challenge”.

Wheatley said the study was not conducted to lay blame but to chart a course forward for the JLP.

“We all know that we had issues during our time in office and if blame is to be allocated several of the persons now challenging would get a large share. We as a party must take responsibility and move forward as one organization”.

Concerning the JLP’s inability to win the election, the report noted that this was due essentially to weaknesses in political conduct of the party during its term of office, of which the “Coke extradition fiasco” was the prime example.

“It also had to do, to a lesser extent, with an element of unpreparedness for a general election that the party leadership had itself called,” said the report written by the Commission chaired by retired professor of criminology in the Department of Sociology, Psychology & Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Bernard Headley.

Meanwhile, the JLP secretariat said that the final list of voters for the election has been approved following a meeting between officials from the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) and representatives of the Holness and Shaw camps.

The JLP said 5,100 persons are eligible to vote in the election on Sunday.