RETIRED PEOPLE'S National Party (PNP) members have been summoned by the party president to join the fight for renewal.

"There must be no one in the pavilion, all must be on the playing field as part of one big, mighty united team ready to take Jamaica forward," PNP President Portia Simpson Miller declared yesterday.

Simpson Miller's pronouncements came after former party President P.J. Patterson said he decided to speak at the party's 71st annual conference because of her challenge to party members that all hands must be on deck.

"Even those of us who have retired to the pavilion can still give a word, a cheer of encouragement, of guidance," Patterson said.

The PNP, which lost the 2007 general election to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), dedicated the conference to rebuilding the structure and organisational capacity of the party.

"It is about repairing any cracks that may have appeared in the structure of the People's National Party (PNP) over the years," Patterson said.

Strategic plan

Peter Bunting, the party's general secretary, told the conference the strategic plan for refreshing the party was presented to its private session on Saturday.

"We did an honest evaluation of where we are, where we are coming from, and identified a number of action steps that we need to execute to ensure that the party is renewed, is repositioned, is vibrant and that it regains its competitive position," Bunting said.

He also urged party workers to use the next 10 days to enumerate as many young persons as possible.

"I ask, I beseech, I request everyone here to find all those young Comrades who are not on the voters' list, in whatever nook and cranny ... do a last 10-day drive to ensure that we get all of those who are ours on to the list and eligible to vote," Bunting said.

The next local government election, constitutionally due by 2010, is to be contested on the November 2009 voters' list, for which registration closes in 10 days.