By Balford Henry,
Senior Staff Reporter
Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Edward Seaga is flanked by wife Carla (right) and daughter Annabella as they acknowledge cheering supporters at the party's annual conference in Kingston, yesterday.
OPPOSITION LEADER Edward Seaga warned yesterday that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) would react with massive demonstrations if it was ignored in the appointment of a new Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC).
Mr. Seaga told thousands of supporters attending the party's 57th annual conference at the National Arena that new members to be named to the EAC had to meet the party's approval, a principle on which the law establishing the EAC was founded.
"Anything less than our approval, I can promise will bring the most massive protests Jamaica has seen since the 1970s. We will not allow another corrupt election," he declared.
Both the Opposition JLP and the governing PNP are awaiting the Governor-General's appointment of a new committee to oversee continuing electoral reform. This follows the JLP's objection to the re-appointment of two of the three former selected members in August.
Mr. Seaga suggested though that while the country awaited the decision of the Governor-General on the issue, the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) should go ahead with the demonstration of new fingerprinting technology, postponed from September due to the appointment dispute.
But, electoral reform was only one of a number of issues raised by Mr. Seaga during his address to the public session of the conference. Buoyed by his 90 per cent showing in the leadership election on Saturday, the Opposition Leader pledged to fight against corruption "to the death" with the aid of his supporters and all "well-thinking people" through a "crusade to clean up Jamaica".
"When I took the mantle of leadership of the JLP from Sir Alexander Bustamante in 1974, I vowed in November of that year, at a public meeting at Parade, that I did so to fight socialism to the death. Socialism and its evils are dead.
"I pledge today, 26 years later, at the National Arena, to fight corruption to the death. With your strength and the critical help of the JLP team, we will join this crusade to clean up Jamaica with all well-thinking people who wish to see a re-birth of the Jamaica we once knew; once loved as our home; once loved as our paradise in which our children would grow; and once known across the globe as the miracle of the developing world," he declared.
Mr. Seaga said that the support he received from delegates at Saturday's ballot had settled the question of leadership as well as unity within the party.
After, listing a number of scandals and acts of injustice or terrorism which he associated with the PNP since 1970, Mr. Seaga made a number of proposals, some of which he had made previously, towards dealing with the problems of justice and corruption.
These included that: instead of the proposed police investigative unit within the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) the money be invested in staffing the Police Public Complaints Authority; the Integrity Commission gives lists of Parliamentarians delinquent in sending in their returns directly to Parliament for public exposure; the National Contracts Commission be empowered to cancel all contracts awarded without its approval and authorise that no payment be made and a list of all contracts be gazetted periodically.
