Kingston, Jamaica.  August 27, 2020. A wide range of issues were examined by the Jamaica Labour Party, JLP and the People’s National Party, PNP in the Finance and Economics debate hosted under the auspices of the Jamaica Debates Commission, JDC in Kingston on Thursday evening.

Finance Minister and JLP representative Dr. Nigel Clarke and his opposite number the PNP’s Mark Golding faced fourteen questions from the panel of two journalists and a selection of questions drawn from social media and electronically mailed in ones.  There were also four follow up questions, as the journalists tried to get specific answers to their questions.

When the debaters got to pose questions, they each went to questioning whether or not the electorate can trust the other’s party and their leadership to take the country out of the Coronavirus pandemic.

More than ten (10) areas were explored by the questioners as the journalists including how the parties planned to fund the promises made in their respective manifestoes.  There were also questions on plans for rebuilding the economy after COVID-19, economic growth, investment, managing devaluation, tax policy, economic growth, provision of housing and reducing dependency on the COVID-hit tourism industry.

The debate covered a wide range of topics, to include curtailing waste and breaches in government contract procurement, problems with roads, water, education, crime and violence as well as constitutional issues such as replacing the monarchy.