The Editor, Sir:

Anyone who follows local politics would be familiar with the PNP's 'turn-taking' culture in which young aspirants are suppressed in the background so that stalwarts can have their time in the foreground, based on the sole premise of the length of their tenure.

It is my fervent hope that going into this crucial vice-presidential election on Saturday, that culture has shifted.

However, given the toxic reactions to one young candidate's recent pronouncements that it's time he be given a chance, my hopes have been dashed.

It's the same old PNP, as there seems to be a concerted effort to punish Damion Crawford for having been too forward in declaring that he's the best man for the job. Like, how dare he? He needs to wait his turn.

Dear delegates, look across the street at your competition which handed you a surprise on the now infamous payday, February 25, 2016. The JLP took a chance on Andrew Holness when Bruce Golding stepped down in 2011.

Holness was always an aspirant, but it wasn't quite his time. There were some stalwarts ahead of him whose time had come. But, the JLP did the smart thing and put forward the man who could bring them victory in this current dispensation.

It's time to catch up. You have at your disposal an open secret weapon. Do not follow the rhetoric that he talks too much and should be taught a lesson to wait. You and party will wait while Prince Andrew calls an election after these beautiful roads have been opened and wins for himself a second term.

Delegates, show the Jamaican public that you are not a group of non-intellectual pawns who are merely told where to mark an X, that you can actually think for yourselves. Give your hard-working, fresh-thinking and most popular party member a chance. Time come!

Ann-Marie Campbell