Clyde Williams Says He Cannot Vote For PNP In Current Form

Attorney-at-law and former chairman of the People’s National Party’s, PNP, Human Rights Commission, Clyde Williams, says he cannot vote for the leadership of the PNP in its current form.

This as he reacted to the decision to invite and parade controversial dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel on the stage at the PNP’s annual conference at the National Arena on Sunday.

PNP chairman, Dr. Angela Brown-Burke, and party general secretary, Dr. Dayton Campbell, say Sunday’s conference was open to the public and that Kartel, like any other Jamaican was free to attend.

A video posted on TikTok shows Dr. Campbell meeting Kartel and his entourage, patting him on the back and pointing him in the direction of the stage.

In a series of posts on social media, Clyde Williams says he’s not buying the attempt by the PNP to spin Kartel’s appearance on stage.

He says honesty is required from the PNP on the issue and there’s no need for the Mark Golding-led party to take Jamaicans for fools.

Williams says no one is questioning Kartel’s right to attend the public session of a party conference. But he criticises the optics of inviting Kartel on the platform, in his words, “front and centre”.

Williams says all of what the PNP said about crime, gangs, law and order was undone by that one act.

He says the PNP must understand that leadership is not simply about competence. He says a big part of leadership is judgment, including when to say no, when to say not now and when to know that it’s the wrong time and wrong message.

Williams says he cannot vote for the leadership which was on display at the National Arena on Sunday.