Jamaica Debates Commission announces changes and teams for election debates
Published:Tuesday | August 19, 2025 | 11:18 AM
The Jamaica Debates Commission (JDC) has announced there will be a team format for the election debate on the economy this year, based on feedback from the public.
The change was announced at a press conference this morning by JDC Chairman, Brian Schmidt, who noted that the debate on the economy would be the second of a series of three debates to be held on August 23, 26 and 28.
The first debate will be on social issues and the final one will be between the leaders of both major political parties who are seeking to become prime minister.
The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says it will be represented in the team debate on the economy by Fayval Williams, Dr Christopher Tufton and Dr Dana Morris Dixon. The People's National Party (PNP) will be represented by Julian Robinson, Peter Bunting and Kisha Anderson.
The debate on the economy traditionally involved the parties' finance spokespersons only.
For the social debate, the PNP's team will be Damion Crawford, Raymond Pryce and Sophia Frazer-Binns, while the JLP's will be comprised of Pearnel Charles Jnr, Kamina Johnson Smith and Matthew Samuda.
Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness and Opposition Leader Mark Golding will go head to head in the leadership debate.
The PNP's negotiator with the JDC, Colin Campbell, admitted that the PNP did not initially support the team format for the debate on the economy, but eventually relented.
In the meantime, Schmidt has also announced a change in the format of the debates, with the opening statements to be abandoned in favour of more questions from the panellists.
This year the first debate will be moderated by Janella Precius, with questions coming from Natalie Campbell and Romardo Lyons. The second will be moderated by George Davis, with questions from Dashan Hendricks and Andrea Chisholm.
The leadership debate will be moderated by Archibald Gordon, with questions from Dionne Jackson Miller and Giovanni Dennis.
Questions will also be taken from social media by Amoy Harriott.
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