PNP denies kicking off local gov’t road campaign
Published:Friday | December 17, 2021 | 7:17 AM
The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) is denying that it has commenced its political campaign in anticipation of the local government elections due by February, insisting instead that it is checking the pulse of an under-pressure electorate.
The party has also downplayed criticisms it has received amid clear breaches of the Disaster Risk Management Act, with PNP President Mark Golding captured on video footage and in photographs among throngs of supporters in several towns across the country in recent days.
“This is not a tour in the traditional sense, where you would have people being mobilised, where you have busloads of people, where you have gatherings being arranged at rally stops,” Deputy General Secretary in charge of Communications Nekeshia Burchell said when contacted by The Gleaner earlier this week.
“What we have is really him (Golding) going through to test the pulse of the people,” she added.
Burchell argued that it is difficult to avoid crowds or mitigate against gathering, noting that Golding’s tour has taken him to areas already densely populated, including markets.
There, she said, the PNP leader has continued his public education on the dangers of COVID-19 while advancing the message of the Ministry of Health and Wellness to keep socially distant, sanitise often and wear masks.
Burchell said Golding, whose performance rating slipped by five percentage points, dropping from 16 per cent to 11 per cent since last year, according to an RJRGLEANER-commissioned Don Anderson poll, had committed to touring the country to boost his visibility.
“It’s a familiarisation [tour] in a sense that he wants the people to know him and also for him to see how the people fare where crime, COVID and cost of living are concerned. So, it’s really a pulse-testing situation. It’s all across Jamaica; he wants to hear what the people are saying,” said the deputy general secretary.