The National Political Debate set for tonight, involving the leaders of the three major political parties, is to be televised regionally and internationally through the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) and its cable partners in North America.

The Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) and Churches United for Redemptive Action (CURA), the local grouping of Christian organisations, today became the latest to endorse the National Political Debate '97 organised by the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ), with support from the Jamaica Exporters Association (JEA) and the Professional Societies Association in Jamaica (PSAJ).

CBU announced it would bring the debate involving Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, Oppo-sition Leader Edward Seaga and National Democratic Movement (NDM) president, Bruce Gold-ing, to millions of viewers across the Caribbean and North America through its cable partners in New York and Florida. CBU is being assisted by Cable and Wireless.

CURA, which is the umbrella grouping of church organisations, said it endorsed the de-bate, because "elections should be about issues and concrete plans to address them".

CURA secretary, the Rev. Livingstone Thompson, said Jamaicans were faced with many critical issues that could not be addressed by violence or empty promises.

Aim of debate

"We believe that the National Political Debate will encourage Jamaicans to vote on the basis of how the issues, which include serious moral imperatives, are going to be addressed by the political parties," Mr. Thompson said.

CURA's members include the Jamaica Council of Churches, Jamaica Association of Evan-gelicals, Seventh Day Adven-tists, Jamaica Pentecostal Uni-on, the Church of God in Jam-aica and the Jamaica Associa-tion of Full Gospel Churches.

Tonight's debate will be broadcast live by Super Supreme Television (SSTV), CVM Television, Radio Jamaica and KLAS-FM from the studios of the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC) be-tween 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Moderator of the debate is Dr. Aggrey Brown, director of the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC).

The leaders will answer questions from a panel of five journalists - Wyvolyn Gager, Editor-in-Chief of The Gleaner; Franklin McKnight, publisher of the Sunday Herald; Milton Walker, News Editor of CVM-TV; Earl Moxam, senior producer, Radio Jamaica, and Michael Pryce, political reporter, Super Supreme TV (SSTV).