Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

Simpson Miller ... I embraced them until my hands hurt.

PEOPLE'S NATIONAL Party (PNP) President, Portia Simpson Miller, has for the first time admitted that she is hurt by the challenge to her reign by Dr Peter Phillips.

Simpson Miller, who has acknowledged the democratic right of party members to run for any post, told The Gleaner yesterday that Phillips and his supporters had never accepted her as party president.

"I would go to my bed with a prayer in my heart, praying for unity and wake up with that said prayer," said Simpson Miller adding that she had always extended a hand of friendship to Phillips' team but it was never welcomed.

Simpson Miller was elected PNP president on February 25, 2006, with a narrow 247-vote win over Phillips, who finished second in the four-person race.

Challenge

Phillips

"They had decided from that time that they would have challenged me. They were working on their challenge from that time," she said.

Phillips' Arise and Renew campaign says Simpson Miller has failed to unite the PNP and to lead the party to a fifth consecutive general election win.

In a Sunday Gleaner article, Phillips, an outgoing PNP vice-president, declared that Simpson Miller had not delivered.

"A leader must lead. The PNP has gone through presidential contests before: 1969 between Michael Manley and Vivian Blake, P.J. Patterson and Portia Simpson in 1992," said Phillips.

"When you examine those, the winners accepted that they had a fundamental responsibility to administer the party without recriminations, without bitterness and to extend the hand of friendship and embrace all elements in the party," he added.

Simpson Miller, however, has said that the PNP would have been in government today had factions in the party not withhold their support from her.

Reach out

"I embraced them until my hands hurt. Now I hear that I did not reach out enough. That's rubbish!" Simpson Miller said.

"There was a passive resistance. And then they turn around to question my leadership!" she retorted.

Simpson Miller said her weakness as a leader was embracing those who continuously shunned her goodwill and has promised "strong and decisive leadership".

Arise and Renew has charged that most members of parliament (MPs) and caretakers who supported Phillips for president were challenged for their seats by Portia factions within the party.

However, Simpson Miller said the job of selecting the candidates was done by a team led by Dr Paul Robertson who was the director for Phillips' failed presidential campaign.

The PNP lost the September 2007 General Election by less than 3,000 votes as the Jamaica Labour Party captured 32 of the 60 seats in the House of Representatives.

Simpson Miller, said there is no ulterior motive to her quest to retain the PNP presidency.

"My aim is to ensure that those who are less privileged in the society will have equal opportunity so that they can enjoy some of the privileges accorded to others," she said.

Simpson Miller said she has not given any thought to the future of Phillips should the delegates re-confirm her as party president tomorrow.

Phillips, meanwhile, has hinted that there would be a special role for Simpson Miller if he becomes president.

Neither of the long-standing members of the party have been nominated for vice-president, thus the loser will cease being an officer of the party after the election.