Debating the issues

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Saturday | August 4, 2007

The two leading political parties have agreed to debate the issues starting next Wednesday. But do you know how the Jamaica 2007 Electoral Debates are to be structured?

Look out for The Gleaner's 'A Complete Guide to the Jamaica 2007 Electoral Debates' in Outlook magazine, inside tomorrow's Sunday Gleaner.

# Moderators make last-minute changes

The moderators and questioners for the national political debates, to be held on August 8, 10 and 11, have entered their final round of preparations after meeting yesterday.

The production team for the debates, led by director Brian St. Juste and producer Judith Alberga, are also involved in finalising the details.

A release from the Jamaica Debates Commission said it was reasonably satisfied with the level of readiness for the debates, noting that their last meeting with the political party representatives and commissioners was to finalise the process of speaking order of the debaters in the respective debates.

The commission has indicated that due to scheduling and other issues since the announcement of the panel of debaters, questioners and moderators, two changes have been made resulting in Canute James being replaced by Ian Boyne as moderator in the leaders' debate and Dennis Chung being replaced by Garfield Burford in the economics debate.

The commission has also indicated that the debates have been confirmed to be aired, via the Caribbean Media Corporation, across more than a dozen Caribbean countries.