FORMER prime minister and People's National Party (PNP) president P J Patterson says he will not participate in next month's election to determine who should lead the Opposition party.
"I'm exercising my right not to vote," he told the Hanover Homecoming Committee Foundation's grand ball on Saturday night. "You will hear nothing more from me on those elections after tonight ...Persons have entered the starting block, the race is on, so let it be."
Patterson's comments came a day before presidential challenger, Dr Peter Phillips, in a national broadcast, outlined his reasons for seeking the PNP's top job from incumbent Portia Simpson Miller. Phillips, a vice-president of the party, said his decision was influenced by his desire to advance the interests of Jamaicans and a wish to see the PNP "revitalised and renewed".
On Saturday night, Patterson's comments didn't elicit any immediate discussion, probably because he avoided taking sides in the party's 2006 internal election to replace him after he had announced his intention to retire.
In that election, Simpson Miller came out the winner over Phillips, Drs Omar Davies and Karl Blythe.
Expressing hope for a rancour-free voting exercise, Patterson emphasised that his comment Saturday on the issue would be his last.
The ball, which brought the curtains down on Hanover's annual homecoming week, saw a huge crowd of patrons turning up at the Grand Palladium hotel in Hanover to honour several of the parish's natives who have excelled in medicine, business, health, agriculture, publishing and other fields of endeavour.
Wat kinda thing dat steppz!...I no rate it! Anyway!...PNP ina quick sand!...Mi love di party but mi nah go down wid it!.... PJ, who gives a F if u vote!