The 2025 General Elections Debates have come and gone with Thursday’s (August 28) conclusion of the leadership bout, and are still a hot topic of conversation.

Among analysts and commentators, the consensus is that the People’s National Party (PNP) won all three debates.

On the first one last Saturday, the PNP edged it with a team performance comprising Damion Crawford, Raymond Pryce and Sophia Frazer-Binns against a hesitant Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) team carried by the exceptional performance of Matthew Samuda. If Samuda had good wingmen, the JLP could have won the day. 

Pearnel Charles Jr. was nullified early and only regained ground late in the debate, and by then it was too late. The elegant and articulate Kamina Johnson-Smith was unusually hesitant and hadn’t mastered the brief. Looking back, Dr Christopher Tufton would have been better utilised in this debate.

The PNP won the second debate, which focused on the economy hands down. Fayval Williams had a terrible night and had to be repeatedly rescued by Tufton. For a finance minister, it was dispiriting that she seemed to have no grasp of the numbers and couldn’t articulate the JLP’s economic policy and where it wants to take the country.

Take for instance the 15 per cent income tax proposal. She said technocrats had worked out it would cost between J$20 billion and J$30 billion. She was dead wrong about that and her numbers are way off. 

A back-of-the-envelope calculation? The 2025/2026 Budget has an expenditure of J$1.26 trillion. Tax revenue is expected to bring in J$950 billion. Income tax accounts for 37 per cent of all Government taxes, and the Government is expecting to rake in J$335 billion from income tax

A 15 per cent reduction in income tax equates to J$13.5 billion which means a 10 per cent reduction from a 25 per cent income tax rate comes to J$135 billion.

The following day, on Television Jamaica‘s ‘All Angles‘, both Dana Dixon Morris and Kamina Johnson Smith revised their estimate to J$44 billion. The JLP is still having trouble getting its figures right.

Julian Robinson was the standout star of the second debate; he looked and sounded like a finance minister-in-waiting. He was more assertive than aggressive and he spoke forthrightly and confidently. There’s no doubt he knocked out Fayval.

Dana Morris Dixon showed that her political star is on the rise, and she has the competence to perform in any ministry she is placed in – she is a safe pair of hands and is an effective communicator.

Tufton once again displayed that he is prime ministerial material and took on Peter Bunting with gusto. With Fayval falling by the wayside, he picked up the banner and charged on ahead at the enemy with intent. He was articulate and marshalled his facts.

He landed several meaningful punches on the jaw that caused the PNP to recoil. However, his contribution was not enough to save team JLP. The JLP didn’t figure a way to make its case for how the country would prosper looking ahead, choosing instead to focus entirely on what it had accomplished.

The final debate was a dramatic spectacle with both Andrew Holness and Mark Golding performing creditably. Right out the gate, the Integrity Commission imbroglio and corruption came at Holness, and it did unsettle him. Holness looked a bit tired, but that is understandable as he criss-crosses the country campaigning.

He was tense throughout the debate and needed to be less terse. He looked like a statesman and didn’t lose his cool with what Mark Golding lobbed at him.

It has to be said, it was a mistake to ask Mark Golding, “Is he a Jamaican?” when the president of the PNP coolly reached for his breast pocket and drew out his birth certificate, offering a copy to Holness and then went on to say that the prime minister could not present certification that his statutory declarations were in order. That right there saw him win the debate.

No one saw this coming, and Golding did it so nonchalantly that it had the whole country first aghast and then in a fit of laughter. It has to be the most memorable moment in Jamaica’s general election debates.

The prime minister tried to nullify this by saying born in Jamaica does not make you a Jamaican. Many people will take issue with that, and what exactly makes one a Jamaican will be posed to Andrew Holness for a long time to come.

This is a road Holness should not have gone down. When he says I am one of you and Golding isn’t, people know exactly what he is getting at. It is divisive and unbecoming of a prime minister. Many of the country’s elite will have taken note and will not forget.

This kind of racial distinction is not an issue in Jamaica as it is in the United States. People here get along and live well together. The prime minister must take care not to stir a hornet’s nest and fracture one of the best aspects of this country.

Andrew Holness has been a good prime minister and his administration does have a good record. It can point to its performance, and it is right that it asks the country for another five years to carry out its reforms. It may even deserve it.

However, he has allowed the issue of corruption and his statutory declarations to dog him because he has refused to address the matter and put it to bed once and for all. This is where the PNP has sought to damage him and undermine his credibility. 

In November 2023, TVJ’s Jamaila Maitland asked him directly about the status of his statutory declarations and what was happening with the Integrity Commission’s inquiry into his financial affairs. He then said he would be making submissions by the end of the week and that he hoped that the Integrity Commission would provide the nation with the necessary certification. 

“So I’m hopeful that in short order this matter will be resolved,” he said. 

It hasn’t and has turned into a protracted mess, so much so that he has entered a general election without his statutory declarations certified, whereas the opposition leader has been cleared and is above board. 

This hurts his authority and credibility. He has to clear his name and do the right thing.

During the debate, he bellowed: “I am the politician who can stand with the greatest moral authority to treat with any matter that is considered corruption, and I want to give this assurance to the Jamaican people. You know me, you know about me. You can trust me.”

Really?

The debate between the prime minister and the opposition leader was dominated by allegations of corruption and the prime minister having to parry them. There shouldn’t have been the need to do so. The JLP’s track record under his leadership should have carried the day.

What Jamaica saw during this debate was a man who is a good prime minister and a man who can be a good prime minister who instils confidence.

Mark Golding’s incisive performance and calmness gave him the edge on Thursday night. 

3-0 to the PNP.