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A radical resolution aimed at encouraging four-term members of parliament and five-term councillors to demit office honourably or face strict re-selection criteria was adopted by the People's National Party (PNP) Saturday at the private session of its 70th annual conference.
However, there are concerns about the wording of the resolution, proposed by the New Foundations group, which, if adopted, could affect the tenure of PNP president Portia Simpson Miller and a few other senior members of the party, including vice-president Derrick Kellier and chairman Robert Pickersgill.
"It was felt that the group was trying to introduce term limits via the back door, so there were some concerns about the wording, and the resolution will come before the National Executive Council in two weeks." Pickersgill told the Observer yesterday.
The National Executive Council is the party's highest decision-making body outside of its annual conference.
Controversial PNP member Paul Burke is the secretary of the New Foundations group. Burke is a former chairman of the PNP's Region Three organisation which covers the 15 constituencies in Kingston and St Andrew.
"No one should believe they are entitled to be elected for life for any position in the PNP," Burke told the Observer yesterday, adding that the resolution was "discussed and carried with minor adjustments".
In a long preamble in which it advanced the argument that women and young people make up the highest percentage on the voters list, the group stated the need for freshness, energy, creativity, new ideas and, more important, connectivity with their peers.
The resolution calls for at least 33 per cent of the party's candidates for local and parliamentary elections to be females; at least 25 per cent to be under 30 years old for local government elections, and at least 33 per cent being under the age of 35 years for parliamentary elections.
However, the clincher that has apparently raised concern states that "unless there is good and extenuating reasons to continue, MPs who have served four consecutive terms and councillors who have served five consecutive terms should be encouraged, but not mandated, to retire honourably as the incumbent and not seek re-election, and should only do so, providing that;
(a) the party conduct a thorough audit into their performance and their level of support and is satisfied that they can still comfortably win the constituency;
(b) they are the only aspirant offering themselves for internal party selection and for which they must receive more than two-thirds of the votes polled, which is on the party's membership voters list as ratification for them to continue;
(c) when there is a selection there must be a turnout of at least two-thirds of the voters on the party membership voters list; and
(d) on the last elections in which they contested as the party's candidate, they received more than 60 per cent of the votes polled in their constituency or division.
In addition to Simpson Miller (St Andrew South West), Pickersgill (St Catherine North Western), and Kellier (St James Southern), the only other four-term MPs in the PNP are the Peart brothers, Michael (Manchester South) and Dean (Manchester North Western), who has indicated that he would not seek re-election.
A few others, including current Region Three chairman Phillip Paulwell (Kingston East and Port Royal) would technically have one parliamentary term to go, unless they meet the criteria.
Yesterday, Burke, who in the run-up to last month's internal presidential elections threw the PNP into a tailspin by again raising the issue of paper groups and bogus delegates in the party, said he agreed with legal advisor A J Nicholson that the "party must be careful not to weed out the good with the bad".
A senior party source told the Observer that the PNP has to be directed "because some people would just sit down and not move".
The resolution also called for the party to adopt an annual evaluation process involving all members at various levels, and that all elected representatives of the party be mandated to report on their accomplishments every six months to their constituency, community organisations, civil society as well as the organising commission of the PNP.
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