OnePNP alleges vote-buying by ‘senior leader’ of Rise United

President of the People’s National Party (PNP) Dr Peter Phillips has suggested that reports of cash being used to influence delegates eligible to vote in the leadership election amounts to a betrayal of the party’s historical mandate and could undermine Jamaica’s democracy.

Lisa Hanna, communications director for Phillips’ OnePNP campaign, claimed publicly yesterday that a “senior leader” of the rival Rise United camp was in her South East St Ann constituency on Tuesday handing out envelopes containing $10,000 to delegates who are eligible to cast ballots in Saturday’s contest.

“Every time he went to a delegate and left the envelope, I was called. They are all over the place,” Hanna charged.

Without calling names or making any direct accusations, Phillips unloaded on his rival.

“What they are trying to do is reverse that very concept, that very effort that is more than 80 years old … that persuaded our people that we were not to be just spectators to history, but we were going to be the change agents to history,” he said during a press conference held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in St Andrew yesterday.

“That is what is at stake with this callous, cold-hearted attempt to reduce our people to some bystanders to be bought and sold by those who have more money,” he continued.

Peter Bunting, the leader of the Rise United camp and aspirant for the party presidency, bristled at the vote-buying accusation.

“Absolutely not!” Bunting said on RJR’s call-in programme Hotline when asked about the allegations.

He insisted that he was proud of his team for running a professional campaign.

However, Phillips told journalists that aspects of the campaign have been “a forceful reminder of the nature of the role of money in politics in Jamaica”.

“Money has never been a central feature of the People’s National Party’s appeal to the people of Jamaica. We will never forget Norman Manley’s effort at political education or Michael’s [Manley] injunction, ‘we are not for sale’,” he declared.

The PNP president said that the party’s capacity to reject the role of money in the nation’s political life “is going to be weakened to the extent that there are people in the PNP that seek to use money as a vehicle for persuasion within the party”.

He noted, also, that the campaign started as a “virtual referendum” on his leadership “orchestrated by persons in search of power”.

“The fact is they started the campaign on the basis of a poll. The truth is if we were to use a poll to determine the successor to me, then I would say the present challenger would not be in the top tier”.