Party supporters in a jubilant mood at yesterday's Area Council One meeting at the Dunoon High School in Kingston. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Daraine Luton, Staff Reporter

THE JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) has pledged to add at least two more seats to the eight they now hold in the Corporate Area when the results of the impending general election are tallied.

Derrick Smith, chairman of the JLP Area Council One, comprising consti-tuencies in the Corporate Area, yesterday expressed confidence thatthe party would achieve the feat.

"We are going to take seats that they don't expect," Smith told the area council at a meeting held at the Dunoon Technical High School in the East Kingston and Port Royal constituency, one of those being targeted by the party.

That constituency, which has voted only once for a JLP Member of Parliament in 1980, is now being represented by the PNP's Phillip Paulwell.

However, while admitting it is a challenging seat, Peter Sangster, the JLP candidate, gave the 'I-have-a-dream' speech to Labourites, declaring that deliverance was near.

"The people of East Kingston and Port Royal have had enough," Sangster said, while promising the party hierarchy to "expect a victory for the JLP in East Kingston and Port Royal".

The other seat eyed by the JLP is South West St. Andrew, currently represented by the PNP's Maxine Henry-Wilson. The Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson polls indicate that Henry-Wilson is trailing the JLP's Joan Gordon-Webley.

Last week, Henry-Wilson and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller toured the constituency to help drum up support, with the incumbent MP predicting she may even win the seat by more than 1,000 votes.

Andrew Gallimore, who represents the West Rural St. Andrew seat, said that the PNP's Andrea Moore is spending time in the constituency, but notes that he is uncertain she is getting any traction.

Meanwhile, a confident Opposition Leader Bruce Golding told party workers that they should continue to carrying the message of change.

The ruling PNP has held power since 1989. The last general election was held in 2002 when the PNP won 34 of the 60 parliamentary seats, carving out an unprecedented fourth term in power.