JLP gets Sam Sharpe Square
THE People’s National Party (PNP) says it will stand down from plans to hold a Region Six campaign launch rally in Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay on Sunday night as a result of what would have been a booking clash with the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) for the venue.
Election campaign spokesman for the PNP, Delano Franklyn, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that the decision was made after the party realised that the Opposition had already applied to use the venue for its own rally on the same night.
“It has been resolved; the JLP will go ahead with their rally and the PNP will stand down. It was supposed to be a small rally — a coming together of all the constituencies in the parish. There is no clash,” he said.
However, on a national radio programme earlier yesterday, deputy chairman for Region Six and PNP candidate for St James Central, Ashley Ann Foster, insisted that she had a “receipt” for the booking and said she was at a loss as to how the JLP could have applied for the venue as well.
“We have written for [an amusement licence] from as early as last week, with the full knowledge that we would launch our regional campaign truck called The Hero and have an orange night in Sam Sharpe Square this coming Sunday before Nomination Day. We are very surprised and perplexed that the JLP is planning to have a public meeting at the same time as the launch of our regional campaign in St James,” Foster stated.
Meanwhile, Franklyn said that Sam Sharpe Square is “one of the critical areas” that will feature in the party’s roster of venues for its campaign activities in the coming weeks leading up to the general election on February 25.
On Monday, at a press briefing at party headquarters, Franklyn said that all 63 candidates would be attending church services in their respective constituencies this Saturday and Sunday in keeping with the thrust to have a peaceful election.
— Alphea Saunders