- Norman Grindley/Staff Photographer
Samuda: Secretariat was quite comfortable with the fact that it has a clean and credible delegates' list.
Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer
KARL SAMUDA, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) general secretary, said yesterday the party was prepared to defend any court action intended to derail the election of a new party leader on November 6.
He was referring to a proposed injunction the Pearnel Charles campaign team is considering, in light of their candidate's displeasure about the validity of the delegates list to be used in the election.
A total of 4,656 delegates are on the list to be used in the contest featuring Mr. Charles and party Chairman Bruce Golding.
Speaking to reporters yesterday at a press conference held at the JLP's Belmont Road headquarters in St. Andrew, Mr. Samuda said the secretariat was quite comfortable with the fact that it has a clean and credible delegates' list and, therefore, rejected Mr. Charles' claim to the contrary.
"We are ready to defend our position in any court, whether it be the court of public opinion or the court of law," the JLP general secretary declared. "We are very satisfied that everything that could have been done, has been done."
Additionally, Mr. Samuda dismissed claims by Mr. Charles that he was unable to properly campaign because he was not given the list of delegates in time. The general secretary explained that Mr. Charles was given five different copies of the delegates list, compared to Mr. Golding's two.
DELEGATES' LIST
He added that on September 19, this year, the secretariat gave Mr. Charles a copy of the delegates' list, which was 85 per cent verified. Two weeks later, the JLP general secretary said Mr. Charles received another copy which was 95 per cent verified.
"As a politician, and if I were running and I got a list that was 95 per cent verified, 30 days before an election, I would be out, running and sprinting and happy," Mr. Samuda said. He added that it is merely a convention, rather than a constitutional right, to give contenders copies of the delegates' list.
Samuda also brushed aside allegations that some 800 National Democratic Move-ment (NDM) members were drafted on the JLP voters' list as delegates.
In defending the authenticity of the list, Mr. Samuda said this was highly unlikely as the executives of the 60 constituencies had to verify the list, followed by monitoring done by a group of prominent party officials. He said 80 per cent of delegates on this year's list were on last year's list.
