Election call
Tufton engages JLP supporters for five-month media blitz; PNP scoffs at JLP poll, urges Holness to name the date
Published:Monday | February 17, 2025 | 9:49 AMGareth Davis Sr/Gleaner Writer
ANNOTTO BAY, St Mary
Government Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has hinted that he believes the next general election will be called by Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness by June or July.
The election is constitutionally due by September.
While addressing a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Area Council 2 meeting at Annotto Bay High School in St Mary yesterday, Tufton, the member of parliament for St Catherine West Central, also urged party supporters to become more active in spreading the message of the party’s achievements in the months remaining before the election is announced.
“So, the next four … five months, until the leader call it, we have to be bold. If you never use to call di call-in programmes, start calling now. If you never used to write letters to The Gleaner, start write now. If you never used to talk a little politics pon di pulpit, start talking now,” said the health and wellness minister.
His comments came the same weekend as reports that an internal JLP poll had the governing party leading the People’s National Party (PNP) by almost six percentage points.
‘Designed to mislead’
While the party’s internal poll might serve as a morale boost for supporters, the PNP has dismissed it as “nothing more than a desperate attempt to grab headlines and prop up their (the JLP’s) declining public ratings in an election year”.
In a statement, the PNP said: “The so-called poll, which lacks any credible pollster attribution and provides no dates, is yet another fabrication designed to mislead Jamaicans. If the JLP is truly ahead, then Prime Minister Andrew Holness should waste no time and call the election immediately.”
The party added: “The PNP stands ready to present a real vision for Jamaica’s future. We await the naming of the election date so the people can have their say at the ballot box.”
‘Show your colours’
In the meantime, during yesterday’s Area Council 2 meeting, Tufton said the JLP and its supporters would do themselves a disservice if they did not ramp up promotion of the achievements of the Government.
“It is time to show your colours and let people know about the performance of the JLP,” he said. “When it comes to Labour Party business, I don’t discriminate. Labourites sometimes don’t like to talk about the good things that the Government is doing. This Government, since 2016, has done more to support the well-being of the Jamaican people more than any other Government in the last 20, 30 years.
“You need to start talking the politics now on the bar stool, on the pulpit, on the choir, and in the community meetings. You need to talk about the achievements of this party to any and everyone. It is the people on the ground that is going to make a difference between winning and losing. We have to dot all the ‘I’s and cross all the ‘T’s, and we have to be on the alert. We must not be shy to talk about our achievements because PNP people so hungry fi power that they are going to say any and everything to undermine the Government.”
Also addressing the conference, Everald Warmington, chairman of Area Council 2, reiterated the need for his political colleagues to remain focused and to encourage supporters to echo the achievements of the party.
Warmington, who expressed confidence in victory at the next general election, stated that the Holness-led JLP has performed at the highest standard as a Government.
He pointed to the country’s lowest unemployment rate, no new taxes, ongoing infrastructure work (road and water projects) islandwide, along with a stable economy as clear indications that the JLP deserves a third term in order to continue what he described as the positive transformation of Jamaica and the improving of the lives of ordinary residents.