PNP will not contest any by-election so close to a general election - Robinson

The People’s National Party (PNP) has called the impending resignation of Member of Parliament for South East Clarendon Ruddy Spencer as hurried and contrived.

House Speaker Pearnel Charles told Parliament late Tuesday evening that Spencer had resigned with immediate effect.

Spencer had disclosed on Sunday that he would not be seeking reelection and that he would be succeeded by government senator Pearnel Charles Jr.

Also speaking in Parliament yesterday, National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang, who is also the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) General Secretary, said the Government would be moving to fill the seat "soon" so that the people there are not "left alone"

In a statement today, PNP General Secretary Julian Robinson contends that Spencer’s resignation has not been occasioned by any personal or national emergency, but by the political exigencies of the JLP to allegedly settle the political wrangling between Charles Jr and Robert Morgan.

Robinson argued that the people of Jamaica could not, therefore, reasonably be expected to provide the Electoral Office of Jamaica with $30 million to pay for a “contrived”  by-election when general elections, expecting to cost over one billion dollars, are due within months.

“The People’s National Party respects the right of the people of South East Clarendon to have Parliamentary representation, but has no intention of following the JLP into this unnecessary and wasteful political exercise which will be a carnival of spending state resources, as were the cases in the two previous by-elections,” Robinson said.

As a result, he said the PNP would not be contesting this by-election exercise so close to general elections to facilitate an internal political settlement to benefit the JLP and not the people of the constituency nor the people of Jamaica who must now pay the bill.

Robinson said the party will instead intensify its preparation for general elections.

According to him, the haste to ship Spencer off to a diplomatic post is proof positive that the JLP has no confidence in its ability to win the upcoming general election.

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