PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller has put members of her ruling People’s National Party (PNP) on election alert, even as the party prepares for its 68th annual conference this week.

“The party leader has put us on alert, so we are making sure that we are in a position to give her options that she can exercise them when she wants to. So let us rule out nothing.,” PNP chairman Robert Pickersgill told the Observer, minutes before more than 200 MPs, councillors, caretakers and members of the party’s National Executive Committee met in a special session at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston yesterday.

Simpson Miller herself, when asked if the PNP was getting ready for elections, said: “I have said to my party, put me in a position so that when I’m ready to call an election I can do so.”

However, the prime minister, in trying to avoid speculation about a snap election, said the polls are not due until 2007, and that she would be going for her own mandate when the time is right.

However, the fact that the prime minister called in all her candidates and caretakers to a meeting yesterday ahead of the party’s annual conference, and the provision of more than $100 million to the Electoral Office of Jamaica for the preparation of elections are clear signs that the ruling PNP, which has been sliding in opinion polls, was gearing up for an early general election.

Yesterday’s meeting, Simpson Miller said, was very important, “in that we are making preparation for the mother and father of all conferences.”.

Senator Colin Campbell, the PNP’s general secretary and chief organiser, told the Observer yesterday that there were still some loose ends to be tied up by the party.

“What we’re talking about today is general conference, not general elections. But as general secretary I have to certify to her the full readiness of the organisation for her to exercise any, or all of her options, and I have not so certified to her.,” Campbell said. “I intend to see the culmination of our work at the 68th annual conference….”

Individuals attending the meeting could be heard giving continuous applause to the current party leader as well as to former Prime Minister P J Patterson. While Patterson’s visit was short, Pickersgill said the former PM was well received, as was the PM’s charge to the meeting.

“Excellent. Excellent. She was electrifying. She did not confine herself to the podium. She had a cordless (microphone) and she roamed the floor and made personal contact in many instances.,” Campbell said.

The meeting also laid out ground rules for those travelling by bus to the public session of the conference on Sunday. “.No fast driving, no body protrusion, no overloading,” said Pickersgill.

The PNP will be leasing buses from the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) for the conference, but Pickersgill said there will be a caution fee. “If any damage is done, that caution fee will be used. So the JUTC’s rules must be adhered to,” he said.