Hill blasts Golding over Buchanan’s candidacy on PNP ticket

Government Senator Aubyn Hill on Friday launched a broadside against Opposition Leader and People’s National Party (PNP) President, Mark Golding, over the latter’s decision to name attorney-at-law Isat Buchanan as the PNP candidate for the East Portland seat in the next general elections.

The seat is currently held by the governing Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) Ann-Marie Vaz.

Buchanan was convicted in Jamaica in 1997 for possession of, dealing in, and taking steps to export cocaine.

In 2000, he was again convicted, this time in the United States, for conspiracy to import cocaine, and was handed a 10-year prison sentence.

Despite his convictions, Buchanan has gone on to become one of Jamaica’s more prominent attorneys-at-law.

The decision by Golding and the PNP to name Buchanan as the party’s candidate in East Portland appears to be is a bridge too far for Hill. Speaking in the Senate during his contribution to the 2024/25 State of the Nation Debate last Friday, he said it raised questions about Golding’s judgment on integrity.

Hill also accused members of the PNP of hypocrisy relative to their frequent utterances accusing members of the JLP of corruption, suggesting that they have no moral authority to do so.

“These calls have caused me to look more carefully at some of their recent behaviour, and especially by their party leader,” Hill said while noting that both Buchanan and convicted-then-released dancehall artiste, Vybz Kartel, who was successfully represented on appeal by Buchanan, appeared on stage at the PNP’s annual conference in September.

“Like nearly all of Jamaica, I watched in amazement, with sadness and horror, at the parade of personalities at the recent PNP party conference.

Dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel (with his head and face covered at centre), along with his attorney, Isat Buchanan (partly hidden in background to the right), and other persons, on stage at the People's National Party's (PNP) Annual Conference at the National Arena in St Andrew in September of this year. Senator Aubyn Hill said that was his 'horror moment'.   

“The PNP leader paraded convicted criminals, not only in Jamaica’s jurisdiction, but in (an) overseas jurisdiction, and has been promoting… overseas convict as a candidate for our Parliament, and therefore, as a future lawmaker,” said Hill without naming either Kartel, real name Adijah Palmer, or Buchanan.

Continuing, Hill said “I peeped and searched the TV pictures and could not find a drop of integrity or good judgment on the PNP party conference platform.

“I understand that the person being proposed to be a PNP candidate for Parliament, and who is convicted for crimes in an overseas jurisdiction, has been convicted, not for a simple shoplifting offence or even an egregious traffic violation, but for very serious narcotics conviction involving a schedule one drug.”

Hill said he was asking all well-thinking Jamaicans – PNP and JLP – to reject vociferously the proposal by the PNP leader who he said is commonly known as ‘Markie British’, to withdraw Buchanan’s candidacy.

“They need to practise integrity, which the PNP party loves to preach about so regularly.

“The PNP party leader has a great aspiration for top leadership, (but) his judgment is flawed,” Hill stated.

Following the initial criticisms of his candidacy, Buchanan told a local newspaper last month that he is “fully aware that the Jamaica Labour Party does not believe in rehabilitation”.

“I have heard them and seen the things that they have said, but I am respectfully leaving it to God and time. They are the same people who said I… (wouldn’t) win (the Kartel case)...,” he said.

Kartel and three co-accused had their life sentences for the 2011 murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams dropped by the Jamaican Court of Appeal after the United Kingdom-based Privy Council ruled earlier that the convictions should be either quashed or a retrial undertaken by the Supreme Court because of jury misconduct at the trial.