Chang: Holness, JLP will lead for next 10 years
Published:Tuesday | October 31, 2023 | 12:07 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU
JAMAICA LABOUR Party (JLP) General Secretary Dr Horace Chang has pledged that Andrew Holness will continue to lead the party and serve as prime minister until its 90th anniversary.
“The Labour Party is celebrating 80 years as a successful party and eight years in government,” Chang said on Sunday, while addressing party faithfuls at the Homer Davis-led St James Southern constituency conference at Anchovy High School.
In 2020, the JLP, under the leadership of Holness, won the general election held on September 3, taking 49 of the 63 parliamentary seats over the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP).
“We want to assure the prime minister that we will be celebrating the 81st year in government, the 82nd year in government, the 83rd year in government, the 84th year in government, the 86th year in government, the 87th year in government,” Chang said.
Continuing, Chang, the man leading the political machinery against the PNP from Belmont Road, said the JLP will cement its administration at the helm of government.
Therefore, he stated, the party will also celebrate “the 88th year in government, the 89th and the 90th year in government, with Andrew Holness as prime minister in government, leading the prosperity,” the JLP general secretary confidently assured its supporters.
Chang, who is also the deputy prime minister and a member of parliament for St James North Western, told the prime minister, delegates and party supporters that the party would keep the five parliamentary seats it won in the last general election, as well as the other 11 seats in Area Council Four, which covers Trelawny, St James, Hanover, Westmoreland, and St Elizabeth.
“We come here to celebrate with my friend [MP Homer Davis] and to reassure the prime minister that we have five seats in St James, and it is five that we are keeping and taking home whenever you call the elections,” he said.
The senior politician revealed that he has been assured that the JLP will also take full control of the St James Municipal Corporation by winning all 17 parish council seats when those elections are called.
“St James is blessed with some strong leadership … . We want all 17 of them. We don’t want to see no little orange flag fly anywhere in the midst again; all of them we are taking,” Chang said, to the delight of JLP supporters.
“I know that the deputy mayor [of Montego Bay, Richard Vernon] locks down downtown, which is where they (PNP) always come looking for. It’s locked from all the way from Canterbury through to Orange Street, Railway Lane, and all those places ... that lock,” he continued.
Updating on the state of readiness for the upcoming local government elections in the Salt Spring Division in the St James Municipal Corporation – which it narrowly lost by two votes – Chang said it is now secured and just waiting on the day of election to cement it in the JLP column.
“We are not leaving anybody out; St James is a big, strong family, and we are generous and we are loving. We love to see the people beside us in green, so we are going to make sure that the weight of St James reaches Trelawny, reaches Hanover and Westmoreland,” he stated.
Describing the orange colour used by the PNP as a representation of when leaves go bad and started to change colour, Chang boasted: “When a leaf reaches orange they start to fall off the tree. We are just going to shake the tree and shake off all of them in the west and carry them home.”