Tyrone Reid, Staff ReporterPEOPLE'S NATIONAL Party (PNP) delegates are proud to be entrusted with the power of choice to elect the party's next president and future prime minister.
Stacy Barnes, a 53-year-old delegate from Region Three, told The Sunday Gleaner that there is no added pressure for her to choose the country's next prime minister because she did it before in 1992. "It is a privilege and an honour to do so," she said. "It is important to me as a person because it is my democratic right to choose the leader of the country."
Hopeton McCatty is another second-timer who is twice qualified to vote. He is a member of a party group at the constituency level, as well as a member of the National Executive Committee. Both positions guarantee him a vote and he, too, will not cast his vote lightly. "I recognise that it is a huge responsibility," he said. Mr. McCatty said that if the choice he makes does not turn out to be the winner, he would respect the voice of the majority. "The choice I make might not be the majority but I have confidence in the collective decision making of the majority," he asserted.
Mr. McCatty, who hails from Region Five, said his constituency has already entertained Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller and Dr. Omar Davies and will do the same for Dr. Peter Phillips and Dr. Karl Blythe before the year ends. The seasoned delegate added that while he would not take the task flippantly, there was no pressure from any of the contenders to win his vote. However, he said that the younger delegates might be getting a little nervous, but believed that they were more excited than edgy.
Name changed upon request.
