JLP should have let Bruce go in 2010

As the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) continues introspection following its heavy defeat in the December 29 general election, one of its affiliates, Generation 2000 (G2K) - which has received much blame for the loss - has posited several reasons for the party's poor showing.

G2K President Delano Seiveright, in an article published in The Sunday Gleaner yesterday, offered several possible reasons for the party's 21-42 loss to the People's National Party (PNP), among which was the failure of several candidates to sufficiently organise and build their political machinery.

"Some, in fact, were detached from the base and are guilty of neglect and arrogance," Seiveright claimed.

'I was not arrogant'

However, one losing JLP candidate has rejected the view, stating he was neither "detached from his base, neglectful nor arrogant" but that the party made "error after error" in the lead-up to Andrew Holness' takeover and after.

Franklyn Witter, losing JLP candidate in St Elizabeth South East, said the Manatt-Dudus affair was a disaster for the party and the resulting commission of enquiry was another massive blow.

"(St Elizabeth South East) is a very strong PNP seat. The PNP has always been winning by 2,000 and 3,000 margins. Even when the JLP was winning in the 1960s, we were not able to win this seat," Witter said. "I am not surprised that I lost. Once you have a national swing towards the PNP, you are never going to win it."

He added however that in last month's election, there were "neglectful and arrogant JLP politicians who lost, and neglectful and arrogant PNP politicians who won".

According to Witter, the former mayor of Black River who lost to the PNP's Richard Parchment, there was more disaffection with the JLP than the PNP and while the JLP failed to motivate and mobilise its base, the PNP did so successfully.

"The JLP in the campaign never highlighted their achievement. We fell down badly there. And then the advertising campaign went negative. You cannot go negative when you are incumbent. You must highlight your achievement. That is one of the main issues," he argued.

Seiveright said in his article that "G2K, at this time, based on the complex internal and external circumstances, transformed into an aggressive communications arm of the JLP that saw it defending highly unpopular issues in a turbid media environment".

Witter said that in hindsight, "At the time when the Manatt issue came up (in early 2010), Golding offered to resign, but the party did not accept it. So the party has to take some responsibility for what happened when poll results before Holness took over showed that we never had a ghost of a chance with 14 per cent and 15 per cent behind."

He added: "We lost the election by about five per cent. There was a vast improvement after he (Golding) left."

Witter, who polled 8,927 to lose to Parchment's 9,907, said: "I think he (Golding) erred in the Manatt issue and that has cost the JLP a whole lot. He didn't handle it properly. And I think he, realising that, that's the reason why he opted to resign. I think it was a good move on his part, I commend him for that, but the damage was done."

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com