Phillips threatens to boot non-performers
Published:Tuesday | January 28, 2020 | 12:00 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
People’s National Party (PNP) President Dr Peter Phillips has issued a stern warning to underperforming delegates of the party, telling them that those who failed to fulfil their duties, including attending meetings, will be removed from the National Executive Council (NEC), the party’s highest decision-making body.
Phillips made the threat at Sunday’s meeting of the NEC at the Montego Bay Community College in St James, where several NEC delegates failed to show up for that meeting, which was attended by several members who made the journey in the gruelling first phase of the party’s bus tour.
“I know that there are a number of Comrades who have been excused, and I know that Comrades, some of whom were on the bus tour and who are absent, but I want the word to go out that if people accept the responsibility of being elected to the National Executive Council, they must discharge that responsibility,” said Phillips.
“You can’t just want the position for position sake, and I want to urge the general secretary, (Julian Robinson) to administer painfully the provision of the People’s National Party’s constitution that if persons are absent for three successive meetings without an acceptable excuse, then they will be relieved of their responsibility,” said Phillips.
Sunday’s NEC meeting was the first scheduled since the start of this year.
Phillips survived a bruising presidential race last September in which Manchester Central Member of Parliament Peter Bunting unsuccessfully challenged him for the presidency of the 81-year-old party.
The PNP is currently fine-tuning its preparation for the next general election, which could be on the horizon based on recent utterances by Prime Minister Andrew Holness. The polls are due in 2021.
The party has already signed off on candidates for 60 of the 63 constituencies and is poised to fill the other three slots in short order.