The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is now questioning the moral authority of the People’s National Party after it announced attorney Isat Buchanan as its candidate to contest the East Portland constituency in the upcoming general election.
“The Jamaica Labour Party is of the view that having on Tuesday, October 1, 2024 announced by way of a formal press release a two-time drug convict and confessed cocaine smuggler, Isat Buchanan, as one of its candidates, the PNP has no moral authority to speak on matters concerning corruption, crime or ethics,” said a statement from the JLP.
The statement noted that Buchanan served time in a Jamaican prison for possession of, dealing in and taking steps to smuggling cocaine.
He also spent approximately 10 years in a United States prison for similar drug smuggling crimes, involving cocaine when he was 17 years old in 1997.
The JLP statement added: “While we believe in possible rehabilitation and redemption, Buchanan’s recent crude, misogynistic and lewd remarks directed at a senior female public servant and his description of some Jamaicans as ugly and resembling monkeys, confirm his unbecoming conduct and poor judgement are not things of the past.
“The decision by the Mark Golding-led PNP which professes to have an Integrity Committee which vets candidates, to confirm and endorse Buchanan, reinforces the fact that the PNP cannot be trusted with governing Jamaica.”
The stinging statement comes as the PNP is pressuring Andrew Holness to resign as prime minister over an Integrity Commission report regarding his financial affairs.
The latest move by the PNP came in the form of a no-confidence motion it attempted to table in Parliament on Tuesday, October 1, that was blocked on the grounds that the matter it wanted to debate was now before the courts.
The prime minister filed in the Supreme Court an application for Judicial Review of the commission’s findings, parts of which he’s asking to be overturned, among other things.
Some believe that the PNP’s decision to appoint Buchanan is an attempt to ride the popularity wave that came with him being the attorney of entertainer Vybz Kartel.