(Jamaica Gleaner) People’s National Party president Portia Simpson Miller is to demit office on April 2.
A week earlier on March 26, the party will host a special delegates’ conference to choose its new president.
Simpson Miller yesterday announced at a meeting of the party’s National Executive Council in Manchester that she will submit her resignation as Opposition Leader to Governor General, Sir Patrick Allen, after her March 16 contribution to the Budget Debate in parliament.
She said she will resign as Opposition Leader but will remain the Member of Parliament for St Andrew South West.
Dr Peter Phillips is expected to go unopposed for the position of PNP President.
However, he will still need at least 50 per cent of delegates to affirm his presidency.
Simpson Miller demits 11 years after serving as president and serving as Prime Minister twice.
She won her own mandate in the December 2011 general elections, defeating the Andrew Holness-led Jamaica Labour Party.
However, she lost to Holness in the general election last year, with many calling for her to give up leadership of the party and to set a timeline when she would demit office.
At a meeting of the NEC in December last year, she told comrades that she would not be offering herself as president at the next Annual Conference in September 2017.
