All roads proverbially lead to the National Arena in St Andrew on Sunday for the public session of the People’s National Party’s (PNP) annual conference, where party President and Opposition Leader, Mark Golding, is expected to lay out the case for his team to be elected as the next Government.
The 86th annual staging of national event is to culminate with today’s public session inside the arena, beginning at 10am.
Golding expects this to be the party’s last annual conference before the next general elections, which are constitutionally due by September 2025, and is expected to outline the PNP’s plans for governing the country.
Buoyed by its positive showing in the Local Government Elections in February of this year and opinion polls earlier in the year showing the PNP ahead of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Golding is expected to use his address to hammer the Government on a number of issues of concern, including the economy, in which inflation has resulted in higher prices, and the state of the education sector where less than 40 per cent of students got a passing grade in CSEC mathematics this year.
An influential party insider said despite a near 17 per cent reduction in murders year-to-date, with 806 murders reported up to September 7, down from 969 for the corresponding period in 2023, Golding is expected to argue that the murder rate is still too high, and that the Government’s crime fighting measures are ineffective.
The PNP has also consistently criticised the Government over the state of public health facilities, despite billions of dollars being spent to construct new buildings and upgrade existing structures, and more criticism is expected to be levelled today.
The three-day conference got under way on Friday with a private session at the adjoining National Indoor Sports Centre. Saturday was also a private session, and veteran Member of Parliament (MP) for East Kingston and Port Royal, Phillip Paulwell, said he was impressed with what he saw.
“The mood and energy of the conference is very positive. I’m very impressed with the high level of participation in the various workshops dealing with a variety of sectors, example health, agriculture, rural development, urban renewal, good governance, etcetera,” Paulwell told Loop News on Saturday.
“These workshops are designed to elicit practical suggestions from delegates on urgent issues that will require immediate attention of a future PNP Government,” he added.
Paulwell, who is also the Opposition Spokesman on Energy and Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives, further said, “based on responses from the delegates who are present, and from supporters from across the country, I anticipate a massive turnout at tomorrow’s (today’s) public session of the conference.”
