KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has dismissed claims by the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) that parliamentary democracy is under threat, describing the claims as “barefaced and unadulterated lies” intended to divert attention from what it called the Opposition’s own “disruptive” conduct in the House of Representatives.

In a statement issued Thursday, the party said, “The governing Jamaica Labour Party rejects the PNP’s move to utter a series of barefaced and unadulterated lies in a bid to distract from public backlash it is receiving for its consistently disruptive and outrageous conduct in the Parliament.”

The JLP was responding to concerns raised earlier Thursday by the PNP over Tuesday’s sitting of the House of Representatives. The Opposition accused the Government of undermining Parliament’s constitutional role as the country’s principal forum for accountability, scrutiny and debate.