JLP Legal and Constitutional Committee chairman, Arthur Williams See more images...
Arthur Hall, Senior News Editor
Reports are now surfacing that the Legal and Constitutional Committee of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has ruled that the process used to install the deputy leaders during the party annual conference last Sunday was illegal.
Senior JLP sources say during a meeting last night members of the committee disagreed with their chairman Arthur Williams who had moved a resolution on Sunday for delegates to approve the nominations of deputy leaders Audley Shaw, Dr Christopher Tufton and Desmond McKenzie despite clear breaches of the constitution.
With overwhelming support from the delegates it was assumed that the issue had been settled with the three returned to serve in their substantive roles as deputy leaders.
But with last night's ruling of the Legal and Constitutional Committee the party now finds itself in a bind.
According to the sources an emergency meeting of the party's Standing Committee has been called for this evening in an effort to determine the way forward.
"This is a royal mess but right now the positions of three deputy leaders are effectively vacant," one JLP source told The Gleaner a short while ago.
Efforts to contact Williams have so far been unsuccessful.
