By Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer 
Burke, Davies, Simpson Miller and Phillips
FORMER PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) Region Three chairman Paul Burke yesterday dismissed suggestions that his candidacy for party vice-president was simply a ploy to further the political ambitions of Finance Minister Dr. Omar Davies.
Mr. Burke also confirmed a Sunday Gleaner article that he had officially withdrawn from the race to succeed Prime Minister P.J. Patterson as party president.
"I am not in any alliance with any other vice-presidential or presidential aspirant in my offering myself as a candidate, although I welcome and need the support from all of these comrades without exception, and which hopefully, I will receive," Mr. Burke said in a statement.
AGENDA WELL DOCUMENTED
"I have no agenda. The political agenda which has guided me over the past sixteen months, has been well documented. I can, therefore, truthfully and categorically state that there has been no intrigue, subterfuge, secret alliances or hidden agenda on my part."
Mr. Burke was responding to an article in The Sunday Gleaner by former North West St. Ann Member of Parliament Arnold 'Scree' Bertram, which alleged that Mr. Burke's 11th hour nomination was done to spark the struggling candidacy of presidential hopeful Dr. Davies.
"Paul Burke's eleventh-hour nomination for the PNP's vice-presidential race reflects a strategic decision by the political camp of presidential hopeful Omar Davies, to create an opening for their candidate who has so far failed to make an impression within the party," Mr. Bertram wrote.
CLOSE TIES TO DAVIES
"The reliance of Davies on Burke is not new since it was Burke who facilitated his elevation to the chairmanship of Region Three two years ago. It is this emerging alliance which provides the basis for the boast from the politically naive around Davies that after February 5 Dr. Peter Phillips' candidature will be sabotaged beyond recovery."
Responding further, Mr. Burke said he was pleasantly surprised at the allegation of a collusion between himself and Dr. Davies, declaring that the candidate of his choice to succeed Mr. Patterson was Minister of Local Government Portia Simpson Miller.
Mr. Burke's last minute entry as a candidate for vice-president almost brought the PNP's 66th annual conference at the National Arena more than a week to a standstill. So unprepared were party officials, including the secretariat for a vote, that it took the intervention of Mr. Patterson to get the situation under control. The vote is now set for Saturday where Mr. Burke will face Dr. Phillips, Dr. Davies, Mrs. Simpson Miller and Dr. Paul Robertson to decide on the party's four vice-presidents.
Mr. Burke added that his withdrawal from the PNP presidential race was based, among other reasons, on the fact that the other four vice-presidential aspirants have not supported his idea for a separation of the responsibilities of the party president and prime minister.
