The plan by the People’s National Party Youth Organisation (PNPYO) to field a candidate in the North Eastern Clarendon by-election was yesterday crushed by its parent body, even as the young comrades insisted that they disagreed with the Opposition party’s decision not to contest the court-ordered poll.

News of the PNPYO’s decision to stand down came by way of a press release late yesterday from general secretary Taz James.

“The youth organisation met today with the chairman and deputy general secretary of the PNP, Robert Pickersgill and Julian Robinson respectively,” said the release. “The PNPYO had been deliberating on the issue of nominating and supporting a candidate since Saturday. And, after all the analysis, decided today not to field a candidate. The PNPYO is still strongly opposed to the party’s decision not to contest the election.”

According to James, the organisation affirmed “the belief that the electorate should always be given the opportunity to exercise their democratic franchise and no one should be acclaimed or ushered into Parliament by dialogue”.

However, it was clear that it was the PNP’s threat of sanctions, including expulsion, that influenced the young comrades, despite their bravado, to field a candidate irrespective of what the PNP said.

“The PNP has made a decision and therefore the matter is laid to rest,” the release concluded, a suggestion that the YO was yanked out of the contest, kicking and screaming.

Observer sources said the party made it very clear that the youth organisation was going against the stated position of the PNP, and it would have none of it.

The PNP has decided not to contest the by-elections, one of three so far in which the winning candidates in the September 2007 general elections were disqualified by the courts for holding dual citizenship.

The PNP contested two of the by-election but were defeated by wider margins than the general elections. Discussions between both the PNP and ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) to arrive at a solution to the dual citizenship issue, which has been dogging the Bruce Golding administration, have started, but either side has so far pointed fingers at the other in a confusing blame game.

It was hoped that the discussions would see an end to the elections and the cost to taxpayers, who have so far footed a bill in excess of $50 million for the Portland West and St Catherine North Eastern by-elections.

Yesterday, the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) confirmed that three sets of nomination documents have been collected for today’s nomination exercise.

“The office is reasonably sure that one set is for the JLP candidate Michael Stern, and it can be assumed that the other is for the National Democratic Movement which has indicated that it will contest the elections,” Director of Elections Orette Fisher said yesterday.

However, he said the EOJ did not know who collected the third set “and we did not ask”.

Candidates will be nominated between the hours of 10:00 am and 2:00 pm at the nomination centre at Frankfield Primary School.