KINGSTON, Jamaica – Leader of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Andrew Holness today made an impassioned plea to party supporters and Jamaicans to make him the next prime minister of the nation.
“I want a chance to lead; I want to serve this country,” he said, adding that he loves the poor but hates poverty.
“I am different from Portia Simpson Miller,” Holness said as he addressed the party’s 71st annual conference held at the National Arena in Kingston.
Holness said that he has paid the price for being different in Jamaican politics because “I am not a liar”.
Holness referred to unfulfilled promises made by Simpson Miller after the People’s National Party’s victory at the polls in 2011.
“I come from the same circumstances of all of you inside here. I was born in a one-bedroom board house, no one can tell me about poverty,” Holness told cheering Labourites.
“I want to change that,” he added.
According to Holness, spending time in opposition has allowed him to build a bus to “take on this mammoth task of restoring the nation on the right track”.
He says he has spent time gathering the “right people” who are competent enough to handle the task at hand.
“You have a new bus and a new driver,” he said.
