Chang predicts JLP will win St James 5-0

WESTERN BUREAU:

Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) General Secretary Dr Horace Chang, who is also the member of parliament for Northwest St James, has promised party leader and Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness to deliver the parish’s five parliamentary seats to the party in the upcoming general election, which is constitutionally due by September.

According to Chang, who was speaking at Sunday’s JLP’s St James Central Workers Conference at the Montego Bay High School, the Government has been investing heavily in Montego Bay’s infrastructural development, and he is confident that the voters will reward the party with a repeat of their resounding 5-0 win in 2020.

“The labour party government has invested in St James because we care about the country, we care about the people. We choose Jamaica, and we know that, on this occasion, the people of St James, led by the workers of the labour party, will choose Jamaica and the labour party again to continue the work,” he said.

“The team in St James, and I want you my colleagues to stand with me ... my friend Ed (Edmund Bartlett), we came together 25 years ago; Marlene (Marlene Malahoo Forte), we pulled you out of Savanna-la-Mar down there; Heroy … we have a team that is ready to lead the charge to build St James, and we want to reassure our party leader, current prime minister and the next prime minister, that the St James team is strong, active and ready, and it is 5-0 for the third term in St James,” said Chang.

In speaking to what he described as unparallel achievements by the JLP, Chang said the party has created a Jamaica that is “safe, prosperous and healthy”, and he urged the party workers to ignore what is being said by the Opposition, and to champion the achievements of the party to prospective voters.

“No other government has invested (so much) in Jamaica … but, more critically, to carry us through the difficult days ahead, it is not perfect yet. You want a leader, and there is no question about the character of this leader. You want a strong leader, you want a competent leader,” said Chang, in referencing Holness. “He led us through COVID successfully. You want a leader who cares, a leader who will work hard, a leader who will face the political backlash. He has to be strong, active and competent, and that is Andrew Michael Holness, the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party.”

In defending the investments the JLP has put into Montego Bay, Chang drew attention to the ongoing upgrade of the Sangster International Airport, the creation of proper roads in informal settlements, the new multi-billion-dollar Montego Bay Perimeter Road (bypass), which will open later this year; and the new housing development in areas such as Barrett Hall.

“Investment has shifted to Montego Bay. Sometimes my prime minister laugh and say he cannot put any more money into Montego Bay, or it will sink,” said Chang. “The airport is a US$400 million site; hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to build new hotel rooms. We are now investing J$374 million to give you a better transport system, and we can go on and name other things – housing, road ... the Cornwall Regional Hospital is now a sore point … it was never maintained properly. This government come and say we must fix it, and, when it is finished later this year, we will have one of the finest hospitals in the Caribbean and the Western Hemisphere – 350 beds, newly installed with the best equipment in there.”

In speaking to the current dominance of the JLP in St James, Chang said there was a time when communities such as Canterbury and Norwood were PNP strongholds, where his party had only a token presence. However, he said, those communities are now firmly in the corner of the JLP, hence the party’s strength in St James.

The five sitting MPs in St James who will be defending their incumbency are – Dr Chang, St James Northwest; Marlene Malahoo Forte, St James West Central; Edmund Bartlett, St James East Central; Heroy Clarke, St James Central; and Homer Davis, St James Southern.