JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) Leader Andrew Holness says that with the party concluding its internal elections, its political efforts would no longer be centred around its Belmont Road headquarters, but out in the field reconnecting with the people.

“From here on in, the JLP will be in the field,” Holness told a press conference yesterday at Belmont Road in St Andrew, which followed the annual general meeting of the party's most powerful ruling body, its Central Executive.

“Today is a proud day for the party. We have successfully shown that we are in the rebuilding phase, and we have managed to do so in such a way as to reassure the country that the party is serious about the challenges that it faces, and we are capable of managing those challenges,” he said.

“It is also important to mark this as the close of a phase, after 2011 and the events of that period and then March of this year. The party went into soul-searching, and we are now at a point where we have analysed the issues, we have looked at the problems and we are now coming up with the solutions,” he added.

Holness said that the JLP has now placed a team before the country, which is ready to work.

“It shows a healthy party. When so many persons would have decided to contest (leadership) and, after the contest is over, we are still one united team, and everyone will be out there in the field working to rebuild the party and to ensure that Jamaica's interest is protected,” he stated.

“There is, I believe, urgent need to get into the field and make a strong connection with the people of Jamaica,” he pointed out.

“I believe that we have found the soul of the party, and we are going to go out there and interface with the people of Jamaica and let them understand that the JLP is the party that defends their interest,” he said.

Asked to explain his comment on finding the soul of the party, Holness said that they had spent a lot of time looking at issues such as what does the party stand for; what it means and what it represents.

He said that the soulsearching continues in terms of reforming the organisational structure, including that of its system of four Area Councils each with a deputy leader, which was discussed but was not finalised.

“It's not something that you could do overnight, so it was referred to another committee for further discussions,” he said.