PNP names candidates for election

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KINGSTON – The ruling People’s National Party (PNP) has published the names of its candidates for all 63 seats in the next general election in a move political observers say could result in the party intensifying its campaign for the general election constitutionally due in December this year.

But the main opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) said while it has all its candidates in place, it would not follow the governing PNP and publish their names.

The PNP published the names of the candidates in the two main daily newspapers on Sunday. The list includes 13 women, seven of whom were contesting a general election for the first time.

Last November, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said that Jamaica would not go to the polls on the current voters’ list and that the “youths of Jamaica should be given an equal opportunity to have a say in the way their country is governed.

“We intend to do the reaping at the right time in the New Year. We have to continue to remind the people of our achievements,” she said then.

JLP general secretary Dr Horace Chang said the party would continue its activities to engage the public ahead of the general election.

In the last general election, the PNP won 42 of the 63 seats in the Parliament. (CMC)