Byron Buckley, News Editor 
Prime Minister P.J. Patterson (centre) along with delegates at last year's party conference. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
PEOPLE'S NATIONAL Party (PNP) insiders say the contest to succeed P.J. Patterson as party president and Prime Minister has come down to a two-man affair. But the competition among the two Portia Simpson Miller and Dr. Peter Phillips, both vice-presidents of the party has reached fever pitch.
With twelve more days to go before the holding of a Special Delegates' Conference on February 25 to choose Patterson's successor, both Phillips' and Simpson Miller's campaign teams say their candidates are in striking distance of victory.
Phillips' 'Solid as a Rock' campaign team estimates that at this time, he has the support of two thirds of the 3,415 group delegates that make up the party's voters' list. Phillips' campaign managers say, based on internal canvassing of delegates in 58 constituencies, their candidate is leading comfortably (by more than 100 hundred potential votes) among delegates in two of the PNP's regions. In the remaining four regions he is tied with "others" or is ahead marginally - for example in the Corporate Area - based Region Three which has the largest number of delegates, 1007, up for grabs.
But with virtually two horses in the race, "others" in Phillips' canvassing of delegates most likely refers to Simpson Miller.
Her campaign managers estimate that she currently has the support of half the group
delegates. "There seems to be a coincidence of the national support and delegate's support for Portia Simpson Miller," asserts her campaign director, Easton Douglas, a former cabinet minister. More than 50 per cent of Jamaicans of voting age indicated in a Gleaner/Don Anderson poll last year that Simpson Miller was their choice to succeed Patterson as Prime Minister.
A show of voter strength for Simpson Miller last week in the registration of delegates who will vote on February 25, spooked Phillips' campaign director Dr. Paul Robertson into calling for independent persons to assist the party secretariat in processing the registration of delegates. "I guess people have just become frightened," teased Paul Burke, deputy campaign director for Team Portia. But Phillips' campaign insists "that we have a preliminary list so that groups can check to make sure that the delegates they selected are those appearing on the final voters list."
Following the compilation of the list of delegates nominated by groups - the basic unit in the PNP - last week, the party secretariat has forwarded the data to the Electoral Office of Jamaica, which will compile the final voters list ahead of officiating the election during the special delegate's conference.
The Phillips' and Simpson Miller's campaigns are not letting up and are stepping up the pace with twelve laps to go in the Patterson succession lapathon. Phillips' 'Solid as a Rock' campaign has announced another launch, while Team Portia will roll out its all media advertising campaign this week - 'A woman for the times'. In the meantime both campaigns anticipate that delegates favouring the other two candidates - Dr. Omar Davies and Dr. Karl Blythe - will over the next few days join the 'victory team'.
Region Number of
delegates
1 201
2 560
3 1,007
4 595
5 348
6 691
