Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter
Simpson Miller
PEOPLE'S NATIONAL Party (PNP) president and Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, says the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) boast of having an oiled and ready election machinery will not influence when she calls the next general
election.
"Nobody is going to dictate to me when to go to the polls. I will, at the appropriate time, indicate to the Jamaican people when we will go to the polls," Mrs. Simpson Miller told The Sunday Gleaner at
the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, yesterday.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the People's National Party (PNP) is currently in a two-day meeting at the Conference Centre. But although political commentators are predicting the general election to be in the air, Mrs. Simpson Miller said that the purpose of the NEC meeting is not to discuss the imminence of the country's 15th General Parliamentary Election since Universal Adult Suffrage in 1944.
Party insiders said yesterday, that with election in view, all committees should have met by last Friday, but Mrs. Simpson Miller said the purpose of this month's NEC meeting "has nothing to do with calling an election."
DUE NEXT YEAR
"The election is not due until next year and at the appropriate time, I will call it," she said.
The Opposition JLP on Friday dared the Prime Minister to 'fly the gate.' General Secretary Karl Samuda challenged Mrs. Simpson Miller to "put some action where her mouth is" and call the election.
Mr. Samuda said internal polls have indicated that the JLP is more favoured by the electorates and said the party would be hitting the road starting Wednesday, with an islandwide five-day tour.
The JLP, which has not tasted power since 1989 when the Michael Manley-led PNP beat Edward Seaga's JLP 45-15 at the polls, has said the PNP dynasty will end when the election is called.
"Let's not just hear talk about all this wonderful popularity and this five-term thing that we hear you preaching all over the country. But the only way you can manifest that hope into reality is to hold an election," Mr. Samuda said.
But yesterday, a confident Simpson Miller said: "I have been involved in several elections and I have seen people start well ahead of me in campaigning. I selected the time to go and when I went, the time was always right."
