FILE
Dr Karl Blythe on election day for the presidency of the People's National Party on February 25, 2006.

Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

WHILE there have been reports that her deputy, Dr Peter Phillips, has decided to challenge her for the leadership of the People's National Party (PNP) at its upcoming annual conference, Portia Simpson Miller need not worry about former vice-president, Dr Karl Blythe.

Blythe indicated last week that he was willing to return to representational politics but had no intention to become leader. He said that should he return, his aim would be to help rebuild and reunite the 70-year-old PNP.

"I am more for party building right now. I am not running for president, I am not running for vice-president. I am simply saying I am watching my party. It is in need of some serious help from all of us," Blythe tells The Sunday Gleaner.

Bitter divide

The PNP is still reeling from its 2006 presidential contest which left a bitter divide and mistrust between factions aligned to Phillips and Simpson Miller.

Simpson Miller won the presidency of the PNP in 2006 and then led the party to its first election defeat since 1980 in September 2007.

Despite not declaring his intention to challenge for leadership, party insiders say Dr Phillips is in an uncomfortable seat. They say that he wants to challenge Simpson Miller but he is wary, as defeat could be the end of his hopes of leading the party.

Blythe says he is not against a challenge to Simpson Miller, as it would settle the score once and for all about who is leader.

"Since our Constitution gives us the right to challenge the leader once a year, let's do so now if they want. But from after this, whoever is elected leader, once and for all, everybody should fall behind that leader," Blythe argues.

Simpson Miller has been characterised by Comrades aligned to Phillips as being ill equipped to be president of the PNP. Despite denials by Simpson Miller and Phillips of the existence of factions, obvious cracks are showing up in the PNP.

Blythe believes Simpson Miller has massive support in the party, particularly at the grass-roots level.

"There are some things that I would like to see her have. Like more of the quality that a Peter (Phillips) has, but at the same time, they both would be lacking in certain areas," Blythe reasons.

Need to work together

He adds: "You can have someone who is lacking in certain areas being leader. We just need to work together as a team. We are divided and we need to get together. It is the divided PNP that defeated ourselves in the (2007 general) election."

Following that defeat, the PNP commissioned an appraisal report, which found that the party was not united and recommended that it was time for rebirth and healing.

Blythe is convinced that the party needs to "get itself ready so that when the people call, they can move".

"I honestly believe that I have more to give," Blythe said.

Last Sunday, Blythe told a PNP divisional conference in West Central St James, that he would return to representational politics if the Father said so. He later told The Sunday Gleaner that if the Father said he should return, he would like for his Comrades to meet him at the table with clean hands.

"If I get the voice from my Father that points me in that direction, I would return, I would not even hesitate," he discloses. "But certain things would have to be cleared up first. I don't want to come with any shadow. I am coming with bright sunshine," he tells The Sunday Gleaner.

Blythe bowed out of representational politics in 2006 after not being included in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Simpson Miller, who had beaten him, Phillips and Dr Omar Davies to become party president.

Blythe was the Minister of Water and Housing in the Patterson administration of the 1990s. He resigned as minister in 2002 amid allegations of corruption in the Operation PRIDE project. Despite a damning report on the project, Blythe was subsequently found to have done nothing criminal.

Left out of Cabinet

But Prime Minister P.J. Patterson did not include Blythe in his new Cabinet following victory in the general election later that year. Blythe suffered a similar shut-out of the Cabinet by Simpson Miller in March 2006.

"I was never happy with the way my situation was dealt with by my party," Blythe tells The Sunday Gleaner. "They did what they did and they succeeded in putting in the minds of Comrades that you may like him, but he cannot win a national election. They planted the doubts."

At least one commentator believes Blythe's return might not argur well for the PNP. Troy Caine, who describes Blythe as a politician with a great deal of magnetism, says the PNP might not benefit from Blythe's return.

"I don't think that he has ever forgiven them for exempting him from the Cabinet. Unfortunately for the PNP, the return of Blythe could bring more disunity within the ranks of the party," Caine says.

Should Blythe return to representational politics, he might have to find somewhere other than Central Westmoreland, which he represented from 1989-2005. He insists he is not eyeing a constituency, while adding that the Comrades of West Central St James were calling.

West Central St James was won by Clive Mulling by 536 votes in the 2007 general election. Blythe says he would wipe out that deficit because "it is just me. The people love Karl Blythe".

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com