Dear Editor,

The People’s National Party (PNP) is currently seeing cracks in the method it uses to select standard-bearers for constituencies.

Some Jamaicans don’t entirely trust polls and some don’t trust both parties’ delegates selection process because they believe they can be bought. My suggestion to PNP General Secretary Dayton Campbell is that now is the time to widen the voting process so that it includes more than delegates and party workers.

Campbell should ensure that at least 10 per cent of people from the voters’ list be eligible to vote. Or it could be 30 per cent of the number that voted for a particular party in the previous election.

People who identify themselves as Comrades should be able to vote in PNP primaries and those who identify themselves as Labourites should be able to vote in Jamaica Labour Party primaries. Both parties will say it’s an expensive exercise, but it is way better than polling and the current delegate system.

PNP President Mark Golding could end up being a transformational leader if he becomes the first head of a major political party to introduce this in Jamaica. Campbell needs to ask the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) to oversee the party’s internal elections and the financing of same.

Teddylee Gray

Ocho Rios, St Ann

teddylee.gray@gmail.com