Webber rises to top PNP role amid internal unease

The People’s National Party (PNP) has appointed long-time organiser Maureen Webber as its National Projects Director, a move that some senior party figures say could rival the influence of the general secretary.

Webber, a former deputy general secretary and technical director of the party’s failed 2025 general election campaign, will report to General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell, PNP President Mark Golding said in a statement on Tuesday.

Golding said Campbell “continues to hold full responsibility for the administration and organisational affairs of the party.”

He also nominated Webber to replace Wensworth Skeffery as the party’s representative on the Electoral Commission of Jamaica (ECJ) following Skeffery’s resignation. She will join Campbell on the commission.

The dual challenge facing Campbell, who was recently elected MP for Westmoreland Eastern - one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Melissa - may have been a factor in the creation of the projects director role, said one official who was not authorised to speak.

Golding said Webber’s appointment is “to ensure priority organisational projects receive the sustained attention they require.”

“Maureen Webber has earned the respect and confidence of the party through decades of committed service, strategic insight and effective leadership,” Golding said. “Her appointment ensures that our national projects continue with discipline, efficiency and clarity of purpose. I have every confidence that she will bring acuity, fairness and professionalism to her new responsibilities, both within the party and at the Electoral Commission of Jamaica.”

Webber, who has also done work with political parties across the Caribbean, is to take up the ECJ post on January 1.

PNP insiders say the selection has prompted questions about why Webber was chosen over the deputy general secretaries or other senior figures.

It is the first major leadership change since the party’s third consecutive general election loss to the governing Jamaica Labour Party in September.

Golding said Webber’s appointment as projects director was endorsed by the National Executive Council, the party’s highest decision-making body outside of its national conference.

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