PNP should consider Damion Crawford as president
Published:Monday | September 21, 2020 | 12:11 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
The People’s National Party (PNP) in the last two general elections lost 28 seats. They’ve lost more seats in this period than the 2002-2007 election cycle where they lost 22 seats. Also, this election is the first election since 1980 where they’ve lost 17 seats.
The PNP needs to choose a popular young leader to energise their base and encourage people to come out to vote. Michael Manley and Norman Manley led the party at age 44. Bruce Golding in 2011 decided that rebuilding the Jamaica Labour Party into a winning machine will have to be done by appointing Andrew Holness to lead it.
The PNP needs to start thinking futuristic by picking a young leader to bring them out of wilderness, which will take time. Peter Bunting, Mark Golding, Phillip Paulwell are good leaders but may not be able to attract the youth or speak in their language.
The person who should lead the People’s National Party right now is 39-year-old Damion Crawford. He’s the only Comrade who can boast about increasing the number of votes in any seat he’s in. In 2011, he received 9,634 votes in East Rural St Andrew, so he added 1,589 votes to his fellow Comrade Mikael Phillips, who received 8,045 votes in the 2007 general election. In 2019, he received 9,670 votes in Portland Eastern, so he added 1,064 votes to his fellow Comrade, Dr Lynvale Bloomfield, who received 8,606 votes in the 2016 general election.
He proved himself in 2018 by becoming the youngest vice-president to date, outside of P.J. Patterson, who was at age 33 in 1969.
Andrew Holness will certainly run in the next general election but is likely to hand over the party to another Labourite. Chris Tufton, Nigel Clarke, Juliet Holness, Pearnel Charles Jr and Floyd Green are some of the front runners to take over from Holness. Only Green is younger than Damion Crawford, and Pearnel Charles Jr is just two years older than Crawford. For the future, the People’s National Party should invest in Damion Crawford. They can try to work on his flaws. He has the ability to grow as the PNP leader, like Andrew Holness did.
TEDDYLEE GRAY
Ocho Rios, St Ann