PNPYO president Krystal Tomlinson resigns

President of the People's National Party (PNPYO) Krystal Tomlinson has resigned with immediate effect.

The development comes hours after the party chairman Phillips Paulwell and vice-presidents Damion Crawford, Dr Wykeham McNeill and Mikael Phillips also stepped down.

READ: PNP vice presidents, Paulwell resign

Tomlinson in her statement said she would not continue to serve where there is a wavering commitment to integrity.

"Sadly, our foundation is being shaken and our hard work compromised."

See Tomlinson's full statement below:

It is with great humility and sincere appreciation for the opportunity I've been honoured to have, serving as your President, that I tender this letter of resignation, effective immediately.

Since 2018 I have had the distinct pleasure of serving a passionate and vibrant team of youth who are committed to the cause of improving the lives of our fellow Jamaicans; a team that has worked tirelessly to achieve the mandate received when our Youth Organisation was restructured.

At the start of this journey, we were mandated to build from scratch with no registered groups in our movement. In three years, through your sterling efforts, we are now at 100 groups with over 1,000 members and I take the opportunity to again congratulate our region and parish chairpersons who rose to the occasion to organise, recruit and enumerate.

We rekindled our global fraternal partnerships which created opportunities for international travel to China and Venezuela along with scholarships to study in China - all of which deepens our collective skill bank and our ability to contribute to our nation's development.

Our inaugural scholarship programme launched in 2018  now serves 50 students at the tertiary level who are midway their programmes of study at the University College of the Caribbean, thanks to generous tuition waivers we were able to negotiate with the help of our vice-president, Akeem Dobson.

The anchoring guidance of the Treasury saw us moving the PNPYO's balance sheet from a deficit of millions to a surplus, enabling us to contribute to the welfare needs of our members and the wider community and grease the political wheels to get boots on the ground in the East Portland by-election and the recently concluded General Elections.

As a team, we have done exceptionally well at restructuring and steadying the ship that carries the weight of our generation's ambition for a vocal, vibrant political class! I am proud of each member who chose to answer the call of honourable service with a resounding YES.

Sadly, our foundation is being shaken and our hard work compromised. I had the distinct displeasure last evening of presiding over a vote of No Confidence in our General Secretary, Andre Brown, based on allegations of fraudulent registration of groups to undermine our upcoming elections and feed the rabid appetite of a cabal that seeks to secure power in the Organisation by any means necessary.

I will not continue to serve where there is a wavering commitment to integrity; where parish and region chairmen engineer and facilitate fraudulent behaviour and have the audacity to parade themselves as 'untouchables' because of their proximity to the leadership of the Party.

This undermines the efforts of hard-working young comrades and puts on the line the reputation of all those who serve the Organisation. I have put much on the line in service of our movement but my integrity will not be one of those things.

Thank you for the privilege of leading our team on this leg of the relay. As I hand over the baton to an incoming President I offer myself to support the transition and share those resources available to me that may serve the movement well.

Comrades, the word is love.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.