Procedure and House Affairs committee  Whether we would have done that and then chair a debate, no.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I could just add to that, we would also want some greater engagement with young people, because what we're finding here is that the size of the voter turnout has been declining. It's particularly noticeable among young voters, newer voters, or people who are newly joining the electorate.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Given the time we have to prepare—it'll be in the middle of a school year, so to find a facility that we can set up—it's tricky.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There are no regulations per se. It's just that the debates commission is a creation of these two entities.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Or, “Did you change your voting intentions?”

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We would ask them for their thoughts about the formats we used. Was it a format that they thought should be improved? Did it work? What would they have preferred? Part of it is also qualitative in order to get constant feedback, because of this constant process of improvement that we are engaged in.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Some of our colleagues have gone that route of a debate commission or debate-organizing bodies in other countries. We have never really come to a policy position on that. I think what we would find most useful would be movement towards fixed election dates. I think there is a sense that public pressure, public opinion, can drive the parties to feel compelled to debate.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The two partners chose the individuals in either entity, the chamber and the Media Association Jamaica. It was those entities that endorsed the participation of, say, Mr. daCosta, and two other commissioners from the chamber because of their whole interest in this area. The media association did the same thing; it nominated its own three persons from its side.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The fact is that we have a short window. Usually we know it has to take place within a period of, say, a week and a half—all three debates. It's a matter of negotiating with the parties. If one party is having its major and final mass gathering, we know it's not going to be that night.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would add one point there. Up to the 2016 general election, we were pretty much thinking that the debates were institutionalized, that because of the previous election cycles we would probably get some push-back and some rough treatment at the hands of a political party. It was sufficiently institutionalized that no party would decide not to.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. In the end we haven't, but as you had said there is a certain degree of.... We will know, or a political party will advise us, whether a certain journalist has been writing speeches for the opposing party, or has been doing a, b, or c, and therefore they don't think it is a good idea for that person to be selected.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We should say, though, if I could just interject, we had been in negotiations with both parties before, for weeks and months, and there was an agreement in principle that the debates would take place. The backing out came pretty much as a surprise to the organizers and to the Jamaican public.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As you will have seen in our documentation, since 2007 we have done polls after the election itself, and from those polls we see the degree of viewership. It's still a substantial viewership. The persons who are watching will attest to whether or not watching this particular debate or that particular debate contributed to their voting decisions later.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think that's pretty comprehensive.