'We are ready' - PNP deputy general secretary

By: Admin

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Wensworth Skeffrey, the PNP deputy general secretary with responsibility for enumeration, has said the party is comfortable heading into the upcoming general elections given the findings of various canvasses.

PNP President, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, is expected to name the date for the 16th general election at a meeting in Half Way Tree, St Andrew this evening.

"Our candidates and the political organization were out there doing their work. Our canvass has show we are comfortable in the seats and we will retain victory for the PNP," Skeffery said.

"If they continue with the vibes and the momentum it would be even bigger than we had in 2011," he added.

According to Skeffery, all of the seats held by the PNP have been benefiting from targeted political work and even the most marginal of the seats will be retained by the PNP.

In the last election, the PNP won 42 of the 63 seats in the House of Representatives.

Of the seats won by the PNP, 15 seats were won with a margin of 1,000 votes or fewer including seven which were won by fewer than 300 votes. 

Three of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP's) 21 seats were won with fewer than 300 votes.

The PNP's slate of proposed candidates includes 21 first-times, 13 women and six persons who have ran unsuccessfully in previous general elections.

Last year, Simpson Miller had put the country on election watch.

But at a meeting in Black River, St Elizabeth in late November, the Prime Minister said Jamaica would not go to the polls before the publication of the latest Voters' List.

"The youths of Jamaica should be given an equal opportunity to have a say in the way their country is governed," Simpson Miller said.

At that meeting, Simpson Miller said it was important that the Electoral Commission of Jamaica be allowed to publish the November 30, 2015 Voters' List. 

Some 34,907 new names were added  to the previous list published in May 2015 pushing the current number of eligible voters to 1,824,410.

"Our candidates and the political organization was out there doing their work. Our canvass has shown we are comfortable in the seats and we will retain victory for the PNP," Skeffery said. 

"If they continue with the vibes and the momentum it would be even bigger than we had in 2011." 

He said all of the seats held by the PNP have been benefiting from targeted political work and expressed optimism that even the most marginal of seats will be retained by the PNP.

The PNP's weakest seat is considered to be South West St Elizabeth which was won by 13 votes by Hugh Buchanan over then high-profile government minister, Dr Christopher Tufon.

But for Skeffrey, any talk of Buchanan losing is "absolute nonsense".

"Floyd Green (JLP) is running away. Hugh Buchanan will retain with an increase majority," he said.

Skeffery said that since the Black River meeting, the party's workers have been in the fields conducting audits and training its workers.

"We are ready," Skeffrey said.

"It will be a comfortable victory and we will be retained with a comfortable margin to govern the country".