JLP hunts 45 seats

As the leadership of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) revs up its campaign machinery in the run-up to the next general election, General Secretary Dr Horace Chang says the party is looking to bag 45 seats.

The Labourites edged the People’s National Party 32-31 in the 2016 general election but now have 34 of the 63 seats after two crucial by-elections in 2017 and 2019.

Chang implored JLP workers and voters to “return to your constituencies with one commitment: prepare to return Andrew Michael Holness and the Jamaica Labour Party team to Government whenever the party leader chooses to ring the bell”.

In his presentation at the JLP’s 76th annual conference, Holness, the party leader and prime minister, said that his organisation was getting ready to embark on a second consecutive term in Government. The last time the party won consecutive contested general elections was more than 50 years ago – in 1967.

“When you go home, you going to give the message that you got here of all the things we plan to do next year. You going on the road right away and start to campaign,” said Holness to thunderous applause in a packed National Arena.

Former party leader Bruce Golding, who was in attendance, also touted a second term for his successor.

“Only he (Holness) knows when he is going to ring the bell and fly the gate,” Golding said, adding that as the party approached the final year of its first term, “let us realise that it can’t be too long”.

“You are going to show the Comrades that what took place in St Mary South East and Portland Eastern was just a taste of what is to come,” Golding told enthusiastic Labourites.

By-election boost

Yesterday, Chang told delegates and supporters that it was an eventful but “outstandingly successful” year for the JLP.

He highlighted as achievements the by-election wins in St Mary South East and Portland Eastern, which extended the party’s majority in Parliament to five seats.

The JLP picked up 11 seats in the February 2016 general election.

Chang said the secretariat was working to ensure that all constituencies have a full slate of workers leading up to the next polls, which are constitutionally due in 2021, though political pundits believe that 2020 is the year of reckoning.

Chang told thousands of green-clad party supporters that the commitment of the Government is to build a safe and prosperous Jamaica, having inherited “a broken-down country”.

“Your job is to take this positive message to every community, every corner, the bar, the ‘nine-night’, the grave-digging, the church, the school, and wherever you can find your neighbour, take the message,” he told the party faithful yesterday.