KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Debates Commission (JDC) in a media release Friday evening said that they have written to the Peoples’ National Party (PNP) noting that in the absence of a response to its letter of February 11, it is no longer able to commit to organizing and staging the first in a series of political debates on Tuesday, February 16.

The JDC said they wrote to the party asking it to re-consider its decision not to participate in three debates ahead of the February 25th election.

In their letter they say that they indicated that if the first debate were to take place on Tuesday, the JDC needed three clear days in order to mobilise it teams to ensure the staging of a quality production and asked for a response by 5:00 pm today.

The JDC letter concluded: “As we have not received a response as at the time of writing, we wish to advise that the JDC can no longer commit to organising and staging the first debate on Tuesday, February 16.

“Nonetheless, the JDC remains open to staging the three debates beginning later in the week provided an agreement can be reached with the JLP to that effect. The same condition – three clear days before the live broadcast of the first debate – would remain in place. We should note that given the position of both political parties over the course of our negotiations that the last several days ahead of the election should be reserved for their closing campaign events, any decision to debate – if this were to prove necessary – between Sunday February 21 and Tuesday February 23, must be a mutual decision of both political parties…”