Powerful Jamaican Civil Society Groups Endorse Upcoming Political Debates – Urge Politicians to Debate More in Media and Reduce On-the-Ground Campaigning as COVID Cases Spike

Kingston, Jamaica. Saturday August
22, 2020. With just over 48 -hours before the first of three
National Debates kick-off under the aegis of the Jamaica Debates
Commission, a number of powerful organisations on Saturday endorsed
the imminent debates as the most effective way for getting messages
on policies and programmes before the electorate in view of the
current coronavirus pandemic.

As Jamaica recorded an additional
fifty-six (56) new cases on Saturday, the Office of the Political
Ombudsman, the Jamaica Council of Churches, JCC, Citizens’ Action
for Free and Fair Elections, CAFFE, the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce,
JCC and the Media Association Jamaica Limited, MAJ, threw strong
support behind the JDC and its call for the political parties to use
the debates and more media platforms to carry their messages safely
rather than risk faster spread of COVID-19 by continuing to campaign
face to face which is proving difficult to manage.

JDC Chairman Noel daCosta told
journalists Saturday afternoon that his Commission was ready to stage
the debates under COVID restrictions making sure that the first
debate; a team debate of three representatives from both major
political parties is compliant with guidelines. The debaters will be
appropriately distanced, they will go through adequate pre-checks for
COVID-19 symptoms, there will be no studio audience and only two
in-studio questioners. The debates are being staged at the Creative
Production and Training Centre, CPTC, that will have heightened
sanitization protocols.

The Chairman said
that these are the most important debates staged in the almost
20-year history of the JDC.

“They are being held in a pandemic.
Campaigning has changed dramatically for the political parties and
many of the usual practices have had to be curtailed. We note that
in the last few days Jamaica has added more than 200 positive COVID
19 cases, and the JDC appeals to the political parties to use our
debates to effectively encourage their supporters to act responsibly.
We also encourage the use of media messages more…”, he said.

Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment
Brown endorsed the work of the JDC and called on the four registered
political parties in Jamaica to share and adhere to the guidelines
agreed for conducting themselves in the remainder of the campaign.
She commended the JDC for its commitment to the country and to
democracy as she declared that the debating process is invaluable.

“Debates help the electors understand
better the track record, the policies and the character of those who
seek to lead our precious country…each one of us needs to make
ourselves aware, be personally accountable and hold those who seek to
lead accountable for their conduct.”

She said that regrettably there had
already been “a lot of breaches in this campaign”. She went on
to make an appeal to the leadership of the political parties.

“I call on the party leaders as they
participate in these debates through their various members and as
they continue with the campaign, to live up to the code of conduct
that they have signed” she implored.

“Jamaica requires of you that there
be no violence, no malicious words, no untruthful stories, no
intimidation, no vote buying, no defamation, no political tribalism”,
she said as he heartily endorsed the national debates and the work
the JDC has been doing especially in the 2020 campaign.

Her sentiments were shared by Council
of Churches General Secretary Rev. Newton Dixon who says the
promotion of the debates engages our democratic process in a
transformational way. “This initiative is in alignment with one of
our two foci, namely good governance and the other being family
life…in a qualitative sense it is an attempt to deepen the
democratic process” he said. The General Secretary says this
promotes what he calls “political intelligence”.

The JDC disclosed that during this
challenging period it was pleased that its donors and sponsors had
come up with the JA$30M needed to fund the three debates.

Jamaica Chamber of Commerce President
Lloyd Distant commended the JDC and declaring that there is a lot
being looked forward to from the debates, especially on how the
parties say they would rebuild the economy now hard hit by the
effects of the pandemic. He also said that the approaches to be
taken on how to address our crime problem will scrutinised. He
joined the Political Ombudsman in calling on the political
representatives to live up to the code of conduct they have signed.

Dr. Hon. Lloyd Barnett of CAFFE noted
that the JDC and his organisation were fitting partners in pursuit of
safeguarding the country’s democratic traditions. He declared that
there are two essentials of democracy – one is to provide the
people with the information necessary to make informed decisions and
the second is that having made a choice based on an assessment of
information, the people are able to express their choice in free and
fair elections.

“The JDC is devoted to enabling the
first of these objectives and CAFFE is devoted to enabling the second
of these objectives and so we have worked together in order to
achieve the democratic aim of good governance”, he said.

The news conference which was held at
the JDC/Chamber of Commerce Offices on Half Way Tree Road was advised
that the following were the full set of debaters, moderators and
questioners for the three debates:

Social Issues Debate on Tuesday August
25th will see for the JLP, Dr, Christopher Tufton, Kamina
Johnson-Smith and Floyd Green. For the PNP the debaters are, Peter
Bunting, Dr. Dayton Campbell and Krystal Tomlinson. The moderator
will be Janella Precius and the questioners are Vashan Brown and
Natalie Campbell.

The Finance and Economics Debate on
Thursday August 27th will include debaters Finance
Minister Nigel Clarke and Opposition spokesman on Finance Mark
Golding. The Moderator will be Damion Mitchell and the questioners
are Kalilah Enriquez-Reynolds and Dashan Hendricks.

On Saturday August 29th the
Leadership Debate will take place with Prime Minister Andrew Holness
and Leader of the Opposition Dr. Peter Phillips. The Moderator will
be Dervan Malcolm and questions will be posed by Dionne -Jackson
Miller and George Davis.

It was also disclosed that there will
be debates watches set up in Jamaica but importantly in other
countries where interested Jamaicans had requested to participate.
The other countries included the United States of America, Canada,
the Cayman Islands, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

Chairman daCosta also indicated that
since 2007 when it did its first post-debate scientific polling there
had been research confirming that well over half the population felt
that the debates contributed to their decision making, with some 30%
saying they have changed their voting intentions after watching its
debates.